2020-06-10: Meandering, Mushrooms, Mysteries
- Log: Meandering, Mushrooms, Mysteries
- Cast: Claude C. Kenny, Eleanor Klein, Avril Vent Fleur, Gwen Whitlock
- Where: Meria City - Outer Regions
- Date: June 10, 2020
- Summary: A small group heads to the Feywilds -- guided by a quest for mushrooms and/or potentially mysterious visions of the future. However, Claude is fresh off what he found in the depths of Fila del Fia, while the others here have various concerns and troubles of their own. Can they find out whatever might be lingering within the Feywilds while grappling with their own demons?
DG: A party led by Claude C. Kenny is now entering The Lifeweaver's Whorl. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Navigating the Fog *>====================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The Feywilds are known to deceive. A strange electromagnetic field afflicts the region, throwing compasses into disarray. The fog can at times be so thick that you can barely see your hand in front of your face! Today, both are in full force. Your journey is one fraught with missteps and wrong turns, accidental trees to the face and toes into rocks. It's going to take some doing, but you will need to navigate the inclement weather to reach your destination... Not that it's particularly easy to see, even once you arrive. The fog is thick even near the facility, but you can very clearly make out ruined walls and towers, overgrown with strange flora, rising from a ravine-- but that's about all you can see. Take care not to take a bad fall as you find your way to the entrance. ((OOC Note: Welcome to the Lifeweaver's Whorl! The actual dungeon is split up into indoor and outdoor challenges, each of which will be noted in the card itself. Each card will also contain some commentary from someone who has clearly been here before you. Feel free to find his half-eaten journal notes lying nearby, or perhaps recorded on half-broken consoles...)) =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
The Feywilds are not the sort of place that one mucks around... which is, of course, why so many people want Diggers to go and muck around in it (it's the inherent irony of the profession). It was therefore not unusual for a postbill to go up in the Adventurer's Guild seeking some people to make a run into the depths. What was unusual was the pay, which was surprisingly high for what seems like a (relative) milk run - go in, grab as many unique samples of different fungal flora as possible, and get out. It seemed simple enough.
It wasn't until he was halfway to the Wilds that Claude C. Kenny realized he was being paid to pick literal magic mushrooms. He's still going to do it, of course, because it pays a lot better than making horseshoes. But he's going to feel a bit conflicted about it all the same.
A thick pea-soup fog lingers over the area, and Claude squints through it, trying to make out... well, more than just shapes, really. "Kind of a mess out here," he says thoughtfully. "Wonder if it's magical." Which he won't know, of course - that's someone else's job. What surprises Claude, though, is that the weather is playing merry hell with his own scanning device, at least by the nonsense being beamed into his contact-lens HUD.
The big blonde swordsman blinks a few times, then bangs his head once with the heel of his palm, in case that works. (It doesn't.) Officially out of ideas, Claude shrugs and starts advancing forward. "Come on, let's g---oooh, look at that pink one!" he says suddenly, skipping toward a precarious outcropping upon which several chartreuse-looking myconids can be seen.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has used his Tool Tricorder toward his party's challenge, Navigating the Fog.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"What an absolutely fascinating place... I would say, if I could actually SEE anything," Eleanor grumbles. She feels less conflicted about the job, partly because she signed onto it before hearing about the pay for some reason. It was important that she show up here.
She is regretting it a little.
"It's certainly affecting the magical landscape," Eleanor admits to Claude, "But I don't know if it's magical per se. It's hard to tell which is the chicken and which is the egg in all this fog."
The orange-haired elf is here in more sensible shoes than usual (boots), her ARM on her back (it's a big rifle), and her bag of Crests and items handy. Her feet hurt and this has been more walking than she would like.
"But that's something we can investigate as we go, I think. We--Oh!"
Claude goes on, and Eleanor hrms, pulling a Crest--Wing and Geo--and channeling power into it, completing the magic that lies within.
Sparkles settle on the group; fatigue eases, wakefulness applies, and at least folks can be alert in the fog.
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Acuity Crest toward her party's challenge, Navigating the Fog.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
The long and short of it is that Avril, after catching up with her friends (business elsewhere in Kasutho (Honeysday) had called her away) had then crossed paths with Eleanor, a certain familiar young elf, and they had gotten to talking.
And then Eleanor had asked if she would mind coming along with her to a particular place. There was something she needed her help with, it seemed.
Which is when they'd encountered a certain young man approaching the same place for very different reasons.
The fog is heavy in the air within the Feywilds. It's hard to see very far at all -- not quite the proverbial 'can barely see my hand in front of my face' but perhaps getting there, in a sense.
"It is quite misty here, is it not?"
It would be an easy thing to get lost here. Or take a bad fall down a ravine, perhaps.
Avril takes a few steps into the swirling mists then stops. "Perhaps, if I try this...?"
After a moment, she brings out a particular mirror, holding it in both hands as she gazes into its semi-occluded depths.
It begins to shine softly. With care, she begins to walk through the mists, perhaps a beacon in the fog.
Though, as Claude hies off after a particular fungus--
"Oh? Wherever is it?"
Now she's trying to spot it, too...
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Mirror of De Soto toward her party's challenge, Navigating the Fog.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Dunno 'bout magical, but I ain't likin' the fuzz in the air."
If you want to be lost, it might as well be with a courier. If you want to be doubly lost, it might as well be with a courier with an ARM that can be pesky about such things, like electromagnetic fields. Sort of like having an elderly person with you that has a bad knee that swells whenever there's bad weather, or however it works.
In this case, the damp-haired courier is one Gwen Whitlock, WANTED CRIMINAL AND HUMAN TRAFFICKER(?) except she's here, she needs money, and that rap tends to make endeavors such as delivering packages a little harder. Maybe.
Magic mushroom client does not seem to mind.
As Eleanor uses her magic to 'clear the air', if metaphorically, the wilted redhead slowly begins to come to life, like a dry houseplant given a good soak in rainwater.
"...." She gets out a notepad from her courier bag and flips through the various scraps of handwriting.
"Hey Claude. Check the underside. Gills or pores? I know that ain't gonna really narrow things down, but that's as far as I've ever gotten. Don't eat the ones that got the tiny dots, those'll mess you up. The ones with the bigger splotches'll be okay if you don't take any alcohol... lessee..." She flips a few more pages. "If the dots are tiny and brownish you'll probably die. Doubly so if it's got one of those collars underneath? Or maybe that was the ones with the white dots..."
Will this help Claude? Who knows.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Courier Kit toward her party's challenge, Navigating the Fog.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ======================<* CHALLENGE - Navigating the Fog *>====================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The Feywilds are known to deceive. A strange electromagnetic field afflicts the region, throwing compasses into disarray. The fog can at times be so thick that you can barely see your hand in front of your face! Today, both are in full force. Your journey is one fraught with missteps and wrong turns, accidental trees to the face and toes into rocks. It's going to take some doing, but you will need to navigate the inclement weather to reach your destination... Not that it's particularly easy to see, even once you arrive. The fog is thick even near the facility, but you can very clearly make out ruined walls and towers, overgrown with strange flora, rising from a ravine-- but that's about all you can see. Take care not to take a bad fall as you find your way to the entrance. ((OOC Note: Welcome to the Lifeweaver's Whorl! The actual dungeon is split up into indoor and outdoor challenges, each of which will be noted in the card itself. Each card will also contain some commentary from someone who has clearly been here before you. Feel free to find his half-eaten journal notes lying nearby, or perhaps recorded on half-broken consoles...)) =Dungeon Conditions: Reckless=================================================
=====================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl - Round 1 *>===================== ========================< Results - Navigating the Fog >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Claude C. Kenny 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass Tricorder 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass Acuity Crest 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 0 --(8)--> 8 Pass Courier Kit 1 Wits Effects: Resilient and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(8)--> 8 Fail Mirror of De Soto 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Claude C. Kenny 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Reckless(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny 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> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
"These ones, here," Claude says to Avril, beckoning her over eagerly. She will discover as she makes her way over that the light from her mirror is reflecting off the thick fog, oddly making it harder to see; whether this is a reflection caused by natural or magical properties is difficult to say. (It's both.)
Nonetheless, Claude gestures at the mushrooms, which have a sort of weird, spirally shape and a colour to them that would have been all the rage in the Negative 105s (also known as the 1980s). "Wait, there's chickens here?" Claude asks over his shoulder at Eleanor. He looks around quickly. "Man, that would go really well with the mushrooms." He rubs his chin. "I could start a fire and..."
Gwen's intervention gives him pause, and he peers closer at them. "Uh... hey, brownish spots with..." He doesn't want to admit that he doesn't know what she means by gills or pores. "...well, if we can't eat them, we'll still grab some for the boss man." Claude - who is wearing gloves, though he generally does so anyway - pulls a couple off and places them in a waxed paper bag, which he shoves into a partitioned basket slung around his shoulder.
He stands up, dusting the gloves off. "Okay, where... oh hey, nice job!" Claude says as his fatigue starts to melt away. He gives Eleanor the second-highest of all compliments - AN ENCOURAGING THUMBS-UP.
DG: Eleanor Klein has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Run As Fast As You Can *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...Tests on local fauna have proven fruitful. Beasts injured beyond recovery have been implanted with germinating samples, resulting in near-total replacement of damaged tissue with... INDOOR CHALLENGE: The lights flicker and die. It's not particularly surprising; the fact that they were even on at all is a small miracle. Just when you reach for your lamp, there's a sudden rush of air and a wet, slopping noise. Behind you, the lights come back on-- No. No! It's a chimerical monstrosity, a thing covered in bio-luminescent patches that flicker to life along a massive, gaping maw. The thing screams as tendrils surge out of its mouth like someone had replaced its tongue with a rat's nest of vines. It charges with unnatural speed, eager to turn your entire party into its next meal...! Run! Run as fast as you can! =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor hasn't explained to Avril exactly why she needs to come here, but Avril was kind enough to join her regardless. It's good, though as it turns out, Eleanor likes this group so far, even if there is a WANTED CRIMINAL like Gwen among them. "Hm? Chickens?" Eleanor asks. "Yes, there are many chickens in the region, they're a rather popular livestock animal here." Surely he's from Ignas or something. "...Oh, that does sound tasty," she admits.
She smiles at the thumbs-up. She appears to understand the compliment. "That's one of my favorite spells," she admits of it at this little prompting, "Though may I say I am so glad that we aren't eating strange mushrooms in the fog. I love mushrooms and all but this is..."
She steps around, and soon they find an entrance into a facility. "Finally," Eleanor says, stepping inside with the group and dusting herself off as best she can, appreciative of being able to see properly inside. It's a little ways' inside before anything happens, as Eleanor spots a discarded paper in the hall and kneels down towards it. "Tests on local fauna have proven fruitful. Beasts injured beyond recovery have been implanted with germinating samples, resulting in near-total replacement of damaged tissue with..."
THe lights flicker, and die. Eleanor blinks, and casts a small light into the air by touching one of her earrings. "What--"
Seeing the creature causes the blood to drain from her face. It is an awful, terrible thing, and it charges towards them. Eleanor, not being very fast to stand, staggers up and pulls a rod--
She ices the thing's path and, briefly, it slips and falls. This will buy them exactly enough time to start running, and it may not work a second time.
"Run!"
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Where Claude C. Kenny is from depends a lot on who he's talking to, largely because of his habit of changing the subject quickly whenever talk of home comes up. 'Somewhere very weird in Ignas' is probably most people's opinion. A handful of folks are pretty sure he is from Shevat, which is something he would do more to encourage if he could figure out what the heck Shevat was.
The few that know the truth generally... don't believe him, largely because his backstory includes 'graduated from a space university.'
As Eleanor is reading from notes of some kind, Claude is standing on his tiptoes, just barely managing to reach up and pluck a couple of brown and blue mushrooms that were growing on the ceiling. "Upside-Down Mushrooms!" he says happily. "Those're probably worth... a..."
Eleanor breaks off talking, and Claude - who despite his terrible magical abilities has a finely honed sense of when something scary is trying to murder him (thanks mom) turns and follows her gaze. He has a similar reaction, his brain shutting down with 'oh no'.
Fortunately, the entire point of military training is to condition your reflexes to act when your brain is turned off. Claude lifts a foot and slams it into the ground, following up Eleanor's ice spell with a wave of stone stalagmites. "GOOD PLAN!" he shouts... and then waits for the others to pass him so he can rearguard. He's like that.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Run As Fast As You Can.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Avril is, for various reasons, not precisely shy about tagging along with someone else who she has at least good enough reason to trust (Eleanor is with ARMs, and more or less vouched for due to an assortment of other reasons) even if they haven't been clear about what the goal quite is.
And she knows Gwen, and is familiar enough with Claude.
"Oh, that one has a funny shape," she remarks, leaning over to take a closer look at it. "Hm... there was something about this particular fungus... I feel as if I can nearly recall it..."
But it remains, ultimately, as elusive as the fog.
And speaking of the fog, unfortunately, the mist here interferes with the mirror; if Avril had intended to become a light in the fog, she has rather failed to achieve that end. Still, it's not as if she -- or they -- could become lost this early in. And so--
"Yes, I do recall something about poisonous mushrooms being difficult to identify, or distinguish from those that are safe to consume. ...I wonder why I knew that?" Ancient machinery, after all, is not a surprise. Neither are Golems and the like.
But did the Ice Queen of yore study... mycology?
"Oh? Are there chickens here, Eleanor? ...I wonder what a chicken that lived in this place might look like," Avril wonders, as they venture into one of the facilities.
"What did you..."
Avril trails off, then takes a step back. "Eleanor, something is in here--" she begins, moments before Eleanor casts a certain spell.
"Ah..."
She doesn't need to be told. She turns sharply, drawing out the Sea Medium. "Lucadia!" Shimmering light -- perhaps enabling one to take great leaps in a single bound -- spills out across the small group as she moves to flee.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, Run As Fast As You Can.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
As Claude talks about pairing chicken with mushrooms and a fire, there's an audible sound of a stomach growling nearby. Alas, it is not a giant meat-eating cucco of the non-sentient type, but a Gwen. "... Damn it, you're makin' me hungry..."
This hunger for delicious fungi soon meets its ultimate foe, and that is 'a random note found in a nearby facility'. For, as any good party member in any survival horror game would know, reading random notes scattered about an abandoned landscape is excellent for expanding the lore, but terrible for things like 'beginning to understand that you're in a very creative but sadly departed scientist's playpen.
This sets in when the lights flicker, leaving them all in the dark. Eleanor lights up the room about the same time Gwen manages to fold down the cuff of her gloves, exposing a flickering lit wrist.
Well.
Eleanor ices its path, while Avril uses her magic to speed up the group. Claude waits for everyone to run.
Gwen's response is to instantly dim her ARM, like a shocked child pulling a penny away from a light socket.
... To be fair, it's sort of a biological response. 'Hide from the monster, you dummy, you can't outrun a damn thing'.
She does run, though.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Run As Fast As You Can. DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Ice Rod toward her party's challenge, Run As Fast As You Can.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Run As Fast As You Can *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...Tests on local fauna have proven fruitful. Beasts injured beyond recovery have been implanted with germinating samples, resulting in near-total replacement of damaged tissue with... INDOOR CHALLENGE: The lights flicker and die. It's not particularly surprising; the fact that they were even on at all is a small miracle. Just when you reach for your lamp, there's a sudden rush of air and a wet, slopping noise. Behind you, the lights come back on-- No. No! It's a chimerical monstrosity, a thing covered in bio-luminescent patches that flicker to life along a massive, gaping maw. The thing screams as tendrils surge out of its mouth like someone had replaced its tongue with a rat's nest of vines. It charges with unnatural speed, eager to turn your entire party into its next meal...! Run! Run as fast as you can! =Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
=====================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl - Round 2 *>===================== ======================< Results - Run As Fast As You Can >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Claude C. Kenny 8 --(26)--> 34 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 8 --(26)--> 34 Fail Ice Rod 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 8 --(26)--> 34 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 8 --(26)--> 34 Fail Sea Medium 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Claude C. Kenny 20 --(10)--> 30 Fail Conditions: Reckless(1)|Suffer(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny 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: Avril Vent Fleur has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Tryptophobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...to ensure adequate cross-genomic data transfer, appropriate vectors are necessary. Perhaps by re-engineering one of the local species of pollinating insects, a relatively safe medium might be created... INDOOR CHALLENGE: Walls shouldn't look like that. This entire room-- its walls, its floor, its ceiling, they're covered in bulbous, organic growths. Each one, bulging from the concrete and steel like ripe sores, is covered in clusters of black dots... No. They're holes. They're holes that swell and stretch as strange multi-winged insects pull their way out from within to defend their hive from intruders. The whole room begins swarming with crawling, buzzing, stinging bugs who are all uniformly offended at your presence in their domain. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"That'd be some chicken," Eleanor replies thoughtfully. "I'm not sure I would want to eat it after all."
But running? Rear guard with Eleanor around means slowing down a little, but she appreciates it a lot. She's running as quickly as she can, but she's not much of an athlete.
Claude's stalagmites crash into the horrid creature and trip it up again, buying precious moments before it inexorably rises and chases after the group. Gwen turns down the lights, and that inspires Eleanor to do the same with her light, and the group in short order is afforded a chance to leap far, far away from the horrific monster that already is catching up with them again. One leap, down--two leap--
And then the room around them starts to buckle, the walls giving way under a falling tree and the floor collapsing from underneath. The monster is trapped well behind, but the group falls--
Something breaks their fall.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
It seems for a moment that they might not be fast enough.
Then it seems for a moment like they might manage to escape.
And then everything collapses inwards. Lucadia's power doesn't slow the fall any.
The soft spongy surface they land on does.
"Where...?" Avril hazards, peering into the gloom. She reaches out a hand. ...It's soft.
On some instinct, she pulls her hand away.
And on a different instinct altogether...
The light that gathers in her hand is soft, shimmering as if it had been caught in a small swirling icestorm. It glitters prettily from moment to moment.
It's enough to see what they've landed amongst.
It puts one in mind of an infected wound, perhaps -- an unfortunate thought, particularly when the various lumps on the walls (the floors the ceiling) begin to shift and move.
Oh.
Oh, it's a hive.
And the residents are not very happy about this.
Absolute Zero comes quickly to Avril's grasp. Never mind the blade: she brings out the beam whip without so much as a how-you-do.
After all, the air is quickly thick with the hive's angry inhabitants.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Tryptophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
The something that breaks Claude C. Kenny's fall is in fact the remains of a wooden bookcase of some kind; he smashes into it, scattering chunks of rotten wood and mouldy pages. Stars dancing in his eyes, the young man bounces up to his feet, gets dizzy, then falls to his hands and knees. Fighting the effects of what is probably a low-grade concussion, Claude struggles to shake it off and get back to his feet; just because they fell doesn't mean the monster won't come after them.
Or, well... other things.
"Not the bees," he groans, then grits his teeth and pushes himself up. As he does, he slides a heavy sword from off his back - but a big, broad-bladed greatsword with an oversized haft that takes up a good third of its overall length. Oddly, the haft is wrapped in a polished hardwood, almost looking like an ax handle than a sword haft. Two similar wooden shafts have been worked into the leading section of the haft, forming an unusual but effective guard. A pommel spike completes what is a decidedly ugly weapon - crude but sturdily made. It's far from the light one-handed blades Claude prefers, but taking a full-metal sword into a fight with Ragnell proved to be a bad idea.
It does have other advantages as well.
The blonde swordsman sucks in a breath and steps forward, whipping the greatsword around in a broad, sweeping arc. "AIR SLASH!" Claude roars, and the massive sword fires a much larger, more powerful blade than usual; it hisses through the air toward the oncoming insects. Claude steps forward again, turning into the momentum rather than stopping it. "AIR SLASH!" he shouts again, repeating the process.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Tryptophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Running, yelling, tripping, colliding, falling, falling, falling, ow
Wincing from her fall, Gwen suddenly cringes back, instinct telling her about the bad things that come from spongy, hole-filled substance they've all found themselves on.
"... I think I prefer the monster from before t'this..."
Shaking from each stinger that manages to pierce the non-ARM parts of her, Gwen raises her right arm up, the fist cupped like it was clutching a round orb.
From the hand comes a steadily expanding field of transparent yellow gold, strong enough to make the drying locks of Gwen's hair begin to float from the accumulating static electricity. "Gimme a sec, wanna make sure I do, ow, this right with the, ow, field goin'-- OW-- here--"
It should take a lot less of a charge to disable a batch of angry insects, but even if she succeeds, her friends might get some static cling to deal with.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Full Metal Courier toward her party's challenge, Tryptophobia.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"Whew, that was unpl... Oh that is disgusting." Eleanor quickly turns to complaints as she realizes there's some sort of biological object underneath her. A lumpy, misshapen thing that is... moving, and may have oozed a bit. But it's worse than gross. The walls are moving. "Oh, come on--"
Eleanor jumps off onto the concrete in the clarest spot she can find, grabbing into her bag for something useful. With this many bugs buzzing and humming around a spell might be hard, especially without hitting everyone else--
But she has enough room to play the strange flute she brings out, its eerie tones making for an unsettling, weakening song.
If her hair gets a little messy thanks to Gwen's static then she hasn't noticed yet. Mostly she just ducks down to be a smaller target and make sure to avoid the air slashes and insects as best she can.
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Eerie Flute toward her party's challenge, Tryptophobia.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== =========================<* CHALLENGE - Tryptophobia *>========================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...to ensure adequate cross-genomic data transfer, appropriate vectors are necessary. Perhaps by re-engineering one of the local species of pollinating insects, a relatively safe medium might be created... INDOOR CHALLENGE: Walls shouldn't look like that. This entire room-- its walls, its floor, its ceiling, they're covered in bulbous, organic growths. Each one, bulging from the concrete and steel like ripe sores, is covered in clusters of black dots... No. They're holes. They're holes that swell and stretch as strange multi-winged insects pull their way out from within to defend their hive from intruders. The whole room begins swarming with crawling, buzzing, stinging bugs who are all uniformly offended at your presence in their domain. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
=====================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl - Round 3 *>===================== ===========================< Results - Tryptophobia >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Claude C. Kenny 34 --(8)--> 42 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 34 --(8)--> 42 Pass Eerie Flute 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 34 --(8)--> 42 Pass Full Metal Courier 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 34 --(8)--> 42 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Claude C. Kenny 30 --(20)--> 50 Pass Conditions: Fright(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Claude C. Kenny has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Lousy Leyabout *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...more dire than expected. Natural energies are stagnant or in decline and standard remediation is untenable. Over impractical time scales, certain methods may achieve limited efficacy. Perhaps accelerated biomass cycling... OUTDOOR CHALLENGE: An oasis like this should not normally be possible on a world like Filgaia. Any ecological symbologist worth their salt would be able to tell you that the world is in too poor a shape to support so much life in one place. But here in the undergrowth of the vast forest above, you may have found an answer. Hidden under layers of lichen and mulch is a distinct pattern of glimmering lapis lazuli crystals. Parts of the array have been disturbed over the years, but the tell-tale thrum of spiritual energies suggest that this might play a role in the lushness of the surrounding ecosystem. If you can repair the array, perhaps its full functionality might afford an opportunity to rest and recuperate...? =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Avril shows no immediate signs of disgust, instead merely turning to violence as soon as that option presents itself as the best choice now available to them.
Then again, she is the Ice Queen.
The immediate vicinity turns into a surprisingly orderly chaos of light, sword-driven pressure waves, and a static charge.
Behind which plays the eerie music of a flute.
The bugs (??) don't stand a chance. Weakened by Eleanor's song and Gwen's static (if not outright picked off by the latter), they're easy pickings for the two wielding blades--
Well, technically, what Avril has is a blade. Sort of.
In the wake of the battle Avril slowly kneels to pick up a single scrap of paper that has drifted free from that rotten bookshelf.
" ...to ensure adequate cross-genomic data transfer, appropriate vectors are necessary. Perhaps by re-engineering one of the local species of pollinating insects, a relatively safe medium might be created..."
The rest is obscured by smears of goo.
Shuddering at last, Avril lets the scrap fall from her grasp and hurriedly exits this place.
...Maybe even Ice Queens can only tolerate so much.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny lets out a long breath and slides the greatsword into the harness - a sheath would be impractical - strapped across his back. A quick tug and a shrug ensures it's settled in place, after which he moves forward after the others. After a little while, he moves into the lead because, well, he's probably the tank in this particular composition.
The underhive gives way into a brief sequence of natural tunnels. Long, wispy strands of mycelia line the walls, which is not particularly unusual. This changes, however, as full-grown mushrooms - including several which Gwen's notebook would identify as needing some light to subsist - poke out of the lichen on the walls. After a hundred yards, the tunnel the group is in opens into a well-lit cavern - sunlight pouring in from a crack in the ceiling. Once their eyes, adjust, what can be seen is...
"What the hell," Claude breathes as he surveys the area. The cavern is about thirty yards across at its widest point, and brilliant greenery can be seen throughout. Healthy forest mosses, swaying vines in the ceiling, even what appears to be the beginnings of a small tree of some kind (birch, as it happens). "This is..." The big man looks to Eleanor, as if to ask her for an explanation, but then his eyes catch a... monitor? Claude makes his way over.
"Even more what the hell," he says, peering at the flickering display. It fritzes, and he gives it a highly sophisticated bop with his fist, stabilizing the image. Claude frowns at the words. Impractical time scales... standard remediation... accelerated biomass cycling... Claude C. Kenny is a combat officer, not a scientist or xenobiologist. But growing up in the 104th century gives you a certain basic level of understanding of what some of those words mean. "Was someone trying to..." Claude breaks off, then looks at Eleanor again. "Were there deserts near here, in the past?" he asks. "Do you know?"
All the while, his tricorder continues gathering data.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has used his Tool Tricorder toward his party's challenge, Lousy Leyabout.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Avril follows, wordless, for a time, until they eventually reach this spot within the caverns, where the light breaks through.
Her gaze turns towards the screen, which goes on the fritz. One well-timed strike later and the text on the screen is legible. "...A change of... biome?" Avril hazards, only for her expression to take on a strange cast. "Why... do I know of this, too?"
The arts of war. A sense of tactics. Her unique form of magic. These make sense to understand. But why is this so?
She, too, glances over at Eleanor, as if she might know something that Avril (quite understandably) does not.
Before long, Avril breaks away from the two of them, though, approaching a point in this chamber as if she were sleepwalking. Then she kneels, gently pulling away a chunk of moss.
Something glitters beneath.
"Where have I seen such before?" Avril murmurs, bringing out the mirror--
Which begins to glow itself, lighting up other sections of the array that remain obscured by the foliage.
But not all of it. Sections are blocked off. More work is needed to uncover what lies beneath here.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor definitely finds this gross. But she finds the words kind of interesting--she doesn't understand all of them, but she understands enough of them to find, "Using these insects for pollination for some purpose? But what...? Could this be some kind of... farming experiment?"
Eleanor looks around the cavern and sighs faintly, at seeing something that's a little safer... until the greneery, and beneath--
"What on earth?" Eleanor wonders, and starts to think of potential explanations at Claude's look--but she peers over to the display he watches, too. "Deserts?" Eleanor asks. "Why, yes. Now, in fact; the Damzena deserts aren't that far away from here, and have been for some time."
"These crystals," Eleanor says, "I can feel the power emanating from them. The Ley energy is particularly strong here. I wonder..." She pulls a Crest, but doesn't cast the spell in the usual way--instead she kneels down, and puts it in front of her. Once Avril's mirror lights up, Eleanor gets to work channeling her magic towars the crystals themselves. Closing her eyes, she focuses on what she finds--
"If we adjust the array... Yes, we could enhance the effect further."
She considers Avril next. "You could just be particularly educated. Ecology is an important field to a leader," Eleanor suggests, as she starts to move to work with her hands on the crystals. "But the display alone is some kind of terribly advanced ARM. Who could have built all of this?"
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Acuity Crest toward her party's challenge, Lousy Leyabout. DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Mirror of De Soto toward her party's challenge, Lousy Leyabout.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Indeed, Gwen has her notebook out, trying to identify the mushrooms from her sparse notes on fungus in this region.
"Stuff like this would need more light to grow. Maybe we're near an opening?" Or a mechanical sort of light, as unlikely as it might be in this wilderness.
It quickly becomes an understatement as they come into a verdant paradise, Gwen's notepod closing with an audible 'pop' in her left hand. "I know Aquvy's got some advanatages over Ignas, but this is ridiculous..."
Another detail catches her eye: the distinct ultramarine shade, filtered through with streaks of glittering pyrite. Blue-grey eyes squint as Gwen sweeps away some lichen with her hand. "Looks almost like lapis lazuli. That blue next to the streaks of gold? The air quality's gotta be good down here to get this stuff- I think it's called lichen? Like, it's a cross between moss and... fungi? That's what it kinda looked like to me, in some sketches I saw. Ain't sure if it is." As Claude becomes absorbed in the the display's readout, Gwen wonders further over the grounds. "I bet Auntie'd love some of this research..."
Turning her head up towards Avril, Gwen gives her an easy grin. "Maybe you just read it or heard it from somewhere and just forgot were? Read tons of this sorta stuff. Just never really had much of a reason t'retain it until somethin' jogs my memory."
As for deserts, Eleanor may have the most likely answer, as Gwen only shrugs. "Aquvy is weird." And this is reason #197.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Courier Kit toward her party's challenge, Lousy Leyabout.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ========================<* CHALLENGE - Lousy Leyabout *>======================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...more dire than expected. Natural energies are stagnant or in decline and standard remediation is untenable. Over impractical time scales, certain methods may achieve limited efficacy. Perhaps accelerated biomass cycling... OUTDOOR CHALLENGE: An oasis like this should not normally be possible on a world like Filgaia. Any ecological symbologist worth their salt would be able to tell you that the world is in too poor a shape to support so much life in one place. But here in the undergrowth of the vast forest above, you may have found an answer. Hidden under layers of lichen and mulch is a distinct pattern of glimmering lapis lazuli crystals. Parts of the array have been disturbed over the years, but the tell-tale thrum of spiritual energies suggest that this might play a role in the lushness of the surrounding ecosystem. If you can repair the array, perhaps its full functionality might afford an opportunity to rest and recuperate...? =Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
=====================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl - Round 4 *>===================== ==========================< Results - Lousy Leyabout >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Claude C. Kenny 42 --(8)--> 50 Fail Tricorder 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 42 --(8)--> 50 Pass Acuity Crest 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 42 --(8)--> 50 Pass Courier Kit 1 Wits Effects: Resilient and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 42 --(8)--> 50 Pass Mirror of De Soto 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Claude C. Kenny 50 --(20)--> 70 Pass Conditions: Fright(1)|Save Point(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Gwen Whitlock has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Rooting Around in the Dark *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...foundation is sound. Even if the process takes centuries, it should hold. It must hold. I no longer have the luxury of choice... OUTDOOR CHALLENGE: This place is a veritable maze. While the intact sections of the facility are relatively straightforward, the overgrown greenspaces and winding forest understories are anything but. Navigating the roads of intertwining branches and natural vine-bridges is about as confusing as it gets. This particular stretch is especially dark and meandering, comprised as it is out of an uncommonly dense amount of roots, ivies and vines, with what feels like a half-dozen looping switchbacks and crossroads. The only negotiable paths are shrouded under layer upon layer of vine bundles and leaf canopies. It almost seems as though this natural corridor is holding the two adjacent sections of facility together. Perhaps the Whorl is not as structurally sound as it once was? One way or another, you'll need to negotiate this tangle of jungle to progress. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny - having recently returned from the ruin of Fila del Fia - has a pretty good idea of at least one group of people who could have built all this nonsense. Fortunately, he has a safer option he can default to. "When in doubt, there's always Zeboim," he answers. "On the other hand, it's not in their language, unless I learned to read it in the laast five minutes." He puffs out a breath. "So... maybe someone else using Zeboim tech?" He leans in to examine the display closely, looking for Federation markings or designs - though the latter would be difficult to assume if this thing was more than a hundred years old
Besides - there's really only so many ways you can make a monitor.
While Claude focuses on technology, the other members of his group devote their efforts to more sorcerous pursuits. Avril and Eleanor manage to reveal and empower the supporting crystalline array, which sends energy pulsing up the walls of the cavern. There is a notable shift in the air, as well - a sort of pleasant warmth that suggests this would be a good place to rest. Almost the same effect as the Crest Eleanor used at the entrance to the Wilds, but... all the way through the cavern.
Eventually, however, it becomes clear that the effect will only be maintained so long as they are channeling energy into it. So unless they plan to stay forever...
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
What was a verdant paradise gives way to more and more green, emerald shades overshadowing the remains of a not so natural man-made facility. A straightforward path would be possible if this place hadn't been divided up, with tangled twisted rope of vines crossing over ravines too deep to comfortably cross with a simple jump or an attempt at a climb. Overhead, the branches and leaves let in glimpses of the blue sky, the light spreading its fingers through the space that exists between ground and canopy.
All that's left it to find a direction to go towards, and find a path towards it. The latter is easier than the former, it turns out, as Gwen's attempt at making an organized line from A to B with makes of chalk ends in a confused disaster in her first attempt.
With enough time, the forest could be mapped, but time is not really on their side here if they want to get their client some mushrooms in a manageable timeframe.
In this first attempt, there was one small shred of triumph: a piece of paper, which Gwen picks up and reads aloud. "... 'foundation is sound. Even if the process takes centuries, it should hold. It must hold. I no longer have the luxury of choice'." She looks up towards her companions. "Not sure if the foundation is really sound, if this was supposed t'be a path. But the greenery in here is still pretty amazin'."
Especially since she's standing on top of a thick rope of vines, the structure managing to hold against her weight.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Courier Kit toward her party's challenge, Rooting Around in the Dark.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"Perhaps so," she replies to Eleanor's remark, though her expression remains doubtful for just a moment more. It had felt nearly as if it were...
But she knows better by now than to try to chase down every errant sense of familiarity.
To find her past, she must first put one foot in front of the other, which does mean at this moment, an investigation of the odd array.
"Is this a magic you recognize, Eleanor? I am afraid I do not."
Her own magic is unique enough -- outside the Veruni and a certain Lily Keil -- that it grants her no true insight into this apparatus' markings. And her understanding of the Guardians and the power of the Ley (even if she boasts some affinity for it, or so she thinks) is poor.
After a little time and some finagling with the array, the three of them are able to get it functioning, and for a little while, it's a good place to rest.
But none of them intend to live down there, so in the end, Avril picks herself up and heads onwards.
In time perhaps they've found their way out of the underground and into the maze of the Feywild proper.
...Emphasis on 'maze'.
"Yes... with a few exceptions, I cannot say I have seen a place quite so filled with plantlife as this."
Certainly not on Filgaia proper.
"Be careful, Gwen. This pathway is not quite stable," she cautions.
Her mirror is still in hand. As if on impulse, she glances down into it, and it begins to stream glowing particles of light from within. As if she were a scryer, she gazes into its depths.
Or maybe it really is a magic mirror in the fairy tale sense... and she is technically the evil queen.
"...We should head to the right, I believe," she says, at length. She has a sense, perhaps fueled by the Ley through the mirror (or so she's assumed) that this is the right way to go.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Mirror of De Soto toward her party's challenge, Rooting Around in the Dark.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
The words Gwen reads have a certain literal meaning that is simple enough to discern... yet something in them sets the muscles working along Claude C. Kenny's jawline as he clenches his teeth to keep from speaking. He tries to hide his expression by bending down to scoop up another mushroom from the verdant floor, tucking it away in the satchel. He pokes at a few others, trying to make it look like he's inspecting them when, in reality, he's buying time to still his expression.
A biomass remediation effort, over impractical timescales. Re-engineering local wildlife. Eventually, a forced choice - an action that was necessary, even if it takes centuries. Claude rubs his hands together and lets out a slow, steadying breath. He is becoming increasingly convinced that he knows exactly what was going on here - but he keeps his powder dry for the moment. He has conjecture, not proof - maybe that will be found further in.
Claude straightens and dusts off his hands. A half-remembered piece of advice from his survival training rises out of the depths of his mind. "Best way to move is to look though the growth, not at it," he recites with the well-rehearsed tones of something that was shouted at him until he got it. He frowns. "Although some of this crap looks like a wall." Avril's suggestion seems as good as any, so Claude starts advancing forward.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"I guess that's true," Eleanor admits of the Zeboim. But she's hardly an expert on them. Instead she gets the chance to enjoy the break, because a little magic use isn't so much of a strain in the face of this effect. It's nice. Eleanor is able to fix her hair.
"I'd hardly call Aquvy weird," Eleanor answers Gwen, "But I can certainly imagine it'd take some getting used to." She is still nice about it to Gwen. That's about as harsh as she's likely to get.
She misses Claude's expression, in the wonder she has of the plantlife all around them. It is a maze, but a beautiful maze. ...And in its implications. "The process... He was working with pollination before; there's all this greenery here..."
"This could be a project on an incredible scale. I don't admittedly know much about plantlife but..."
Ah, yes. Through.
"You're right. Speculating out here won't do us much good." SShe consiers, and looks to Avril, thoughtfully. Suddenly, something seems to click into place for her, her golden eyes slowly closing and opening again.
"...Yes," Eleanor agrees after a moment. "Definitely to the right. Here, I'll try to sustain us a bit longer. But it won't be a substitute for real rest if we don't find our way through."
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Acuity Crest toward her party's challenge, Rooting Around in the Dark. DG: Claude C. Kenny has used his Tool Tricorder toward his party's challenge, Rooting Around in the Dark.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Rooting Around in the Dark *>================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...foundation is sound. Even if the process takes centuries, it should hold. It must hold. I no longer have the luxury of choice... OUTDOOR CHALLENGE: This place is a veritable maze. While the intact sections of the facility are relatively straightforward, the overgrown greenspaces and winding forest understories are anything but. Navigating the roads of intertwining branches and natural vine-bridges is about as confusing as it gets. This particular stretch is especially dark and meandering, comprised as it is out of an uncommonly dense amount of roots, ivies and vines, with what feels like a half-dozen looping switchbacks and crossroads. The only negotiable paths are shrouded under layer upon layer of vine bundles and leaf canopies. It almost seems as though this natural corridor is holding the two adjacent sections of facility together. Perhaps the Whorl is not as structurally sound as it once was? One way or another, you'll need to negotiate this tangle of jungle to progress. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
=====================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl - Round 5 *>===================== ====================< Results - Rooting Around in the Dark >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Claude C. Kenny 50 --(8)--> 58 Pass Tricorder 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 50 --(8)--> 58 Pass Acuity Crest 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 50 --(8)--> 58 Pass Courier Kit 1 Wits Effects: Resilient and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 50 --(8)--> 58 Pass Mirror of De Soto 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Claude C. Kenny 70 --(20)--> 90 Pass Conditions: Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Avril Vent Fleur has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Benediction of Archgenesis *>================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...all that I can do. And yet, the truth I have been running from for so long is so painfully obvious. Even if I find my answer, someday, who will bring it to those who need it most? I will die here, so far from home... or else I will be bound to this place, never to see them again. When it is done, will I even remember what I did all this for? INDOOR CHALLENGE: You've finally drawn near to the heart of this place. The vines creeping across the facility walls pulse with light and energy, and grow so thick that it's impossible to tell that you're in an artificial structure at all. Whatever is going on in here, whatever treasures might be hidden here, they're very close by. The problem is, you're not the only ones who realize it. The corridor suddenly shudders as a cascade of roots and vines erupt from the walls to bar your path. Saplings shoot up from the floor, expand into fully grown tree trunks, and then rapidly die and petrify to bar your way. The life-force filling this place surges to keep you at bay. Whatever lies in wait knows that you are coming, and it's doing all that it can to stop you. =Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Right, right." Gwen jumps down from the vine at Avril's warning, landing next to her with an audible 'oof'.
Hearing Eleanor's gentle objections is enough for Gwen to seem to remember herself, as well as how her blunt words might sound to a native. "Ah, yeah, I didn't mind it in a bad way. I'm from the Badlands, so I doubt people'd think of me as something close to what passes as 'normal'." She laughs, rubbing a hand through the curls on the back of her head. "But I 'spose... well, see, a friend of mine got selected to be a possible Etone, so they shipped him out to the headquarters 'round these parts. My first real exposure to Aquvy was through his letters. Made it seem like this strange place, where machinery was everywhere and ocean was as plentiful as sand. And all the fish, n' the people 'round here. Was like another world, back then."
And now, they've been to an actual other world, and one of them *is* from space. .... Not that Gwen knows this, as she misses the expression on Claude's face.
In the end, they manage to find an 'end', though it may be better qualify as a 'center'...
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Eventually, the path draws them inwards to the complex that just might sit at the heart of this place. The building is thick with vines, roots, with all forms of plantlife, as if somehow this place was from where the entire Feywild was rooted.
Just visible between the green is a monitor. Some text is legible upon it. Avril squints at it, then reads a section of it aloud:
"'I will die here, so far from home... or else I will be bound to this place, never to see them again.' So far from home," she echoes, her brow crinkling.
"Did the person who made this... never--"
But further ruminations on this matter are swiftly cut short. In a roaring torrent, the entrance through which they had entered is wound tight with branches and vines and roots and trunks and all manner of plantlife.
Which die. Which become as stone.
It doesn't stop there. All about them, plantlife surges to life, in a manner that suggests it all intends to cage them here.
Forever.
Avril cringes away from a wall that traps her, suddenly overtaken by a rush of fear. "No--"
But in fear, there is also clarity. She finds the device with fumbling fingers, presses the button.
It rises from beneath. An ancient and decrepit but still mighty hand of a Golem, fingers outstretched to tear through the entrapping foliage.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Remote Golem Override toward her party's challenge, Benediction of Archgenesis.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny - who was all kinds of talkative before when things were all silly mushroom goofy times - is now serious and quiet. This is not a usual state of affairs for him; one of the only things that can turn the normally cheerful young man sullen and introspective is anything to do with his home. And this place... the more time he spends here...
It is almost a relief when the floor suddenly tries to murder them. "Thank God," Claude mutters, his left hand dropping into a pouch on his weapons belt. He pulls out and uncorks a small green bottle, shaking a couple of little white pills into his hand. He tosses the Pla-C-Bows into his mouth and crunches them between his teeth, feeling a sudden surge of energy; he blindly tosses the bottle toward Gwen, hoping she catches it. Or at least that it doesn't hit her. He'd have aimed it more carefully, but he doesn't have the time, nor the attention, to spare.
Claude shapes and gathers his chi, a process that has been significantly accelerated thanks to months of quiet practice in Spira. Energy flows out from all three dantians and into the big blonde's hands and feet; this latter he lifts and drives downward, sending a crackling bolt of power toward the earth. "TEAAAAAAAAAAAAR INTO PIECES!" Claude roars, and more of the same spikes he used against the scary monster come bursting up out of the stone, tearing into the greenery.
"WITH"
The power in Claude's hands shifts into an angry red colour, and those nearby will feel a sudden rush of heat blazing off of him. He drives both hands forward into the nearest stalagmite, sending crimson spiderwebs down through the driven stone. Claude grits his teeth, waiting for the plants to cover the spikes entirely - he's seen videos of frag grenades going off in enclosed spaces, and it bodes poorly for those in the middle. But if the rocks are covered by the plants...
"KNUCKLE!" Claude shouts, slamming his hands together in front of his chest. "BURST!" he adds, and the stones below erupt in a series of shattering explosions.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has used his Tool Pla-C-Bow toward his party's challenge, Benediction of Archgenesis.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"Ohhh," Eleanor answers Gwen, "Yes, that makes perfect sense--it really would be from there, wouldn't it? Letters were very important to me, too, when I was young." Gwen has won some Eleanor points instead of losing them! She even laughs a little. "When you put it that way it must be very different."
But as the path goes on, Eleanor hears the sad recollections of the author of this place. "Oh," she starts, in clear sympathy. But there's little time for sentiment--the floor is trying to murder them!
Eleanor blinks in surprise and them scrambles for her ice rod, attempting to dissuade the plantlife by virtue of freezing it.
She pauses, as she feels the blazing heat come off of Claude, blinking his way in surprise--but she gets back to work on the opposite side in a moment.
Or at least she makes the attempt; destruction is not her forte.
DG: Eleanor Klein has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Benediction of Archgenesis.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Letters, across distance and time. Eleanor gets a blink and a soft smile from Gwen, the courier gaining a small bit of understanding about the orange-haired young woman. "Sounds like the letters you got were just as wonderful."
Then, they receive another message, which Avril manages to read part of. "... huh." The reaction comes out in a half-sigh, Gwen's gaze turning soft in reaction to the words Avril reads aloud. "To be trapped by your life's work."
Or consumed.
The greenery around them shifts and attacks; Claude's reaction draws a bewildered tilt of a head from the courier, which positions her at the right direction to catch the bottle Claude throws at her. "O-okay, yeah! Let's tear through this!" She downs the bottle without question and with full blind faith in the secret space alien, and charges in.
A part of Gwen wonders, possibly, if it is really fair for them to tear away the secret this forest tries so hard to protect from them.
But would it be better to witness this core piece of this person's work?
Gwen flinches back instinctively as a large hand shoots past her, momentairely expecting it to be part of the green onslaught. "... A golem?" The courier's mouth curls in a small smile, her mind drifting to Dean's excited face. "Dean knows how t'make the right friends."
Claude tears, Eleanor ices, and Avril tears by proxy. Gwen keeps it simple, trying to coordinate with her comrades with punches and one-armed tearing.
Really, bullets don't do well with plants.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool ARM-ored Fist toward her party's challenge, Benediction of Archgenesis.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - Benediction of Archgenesis *>================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 4 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...all that I can do. And yet, the truth I have been running from for so long is so painfully obvious. Even if I find my answer, someday, who will bring it to those who need it most? I will die here, so far from home... or else I will be bound to this place, never to see them again. When it is done, will I even remember what I did all this for? INDOOR CHALLENGE: You've finally drawn near to the heart of this place. The vines creeping across the facility walls pulse with light and energy, and grow so thick that it's impossible to tell that you're in an artificial structure at all. Whatever is going on in here, whatever treasures might be hidden here, they're very close by. The problem is, you're not the only ones who realize it. The corridor suddenly shudders as a cascade of roots and vines erupt from the walls to bar your path. Saplings shoot up from the floor, expand into fully grown tree trunks, and then rapidly die and petrify to bar your way. The life-force filling this place surges to keep you at bay. Whatever lies in wait knows that you are coming, and it's doing all that it can to stop you. =Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
=====================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl - Round 6 *>===================== ====================< Results - Benediction of Archgenesis >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Claude C. Kenny 58 --(16)--> 74 Fail Pla-C-Bow 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 58 --(16)--> 74 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 58 --(16)--> 74 Pass ARM-ored Fist 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 58 --(16)--> 74 Pass Remote Golem Override 4 Brute Effects: None -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Claude C. Kenny 90 --(0)--> 90 Pass Conditions: Overwhelm Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Gwen Whitlock has drawn a new Challenge.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Galem the Gazer *>======================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...I meet my end, I have prepared a guardian to ensure my work does not fall into the wrong hands and to shepherd the creations I have left behind... FINAL CHALLENGE: You emerge from the walls of vine and wood into a dimly lit grove nestled between the roots of a massive tree. The only illumination you can see in this place is that which you bring with you, and the gentle glow of the moss and fungus of the forest understory. The air is damp and smells faintly of fresh loam. Just as you think you're in the clear, however, a brilliant beam of light sweeps across the boughs and bushes. Its source is obvious; there's some kind of leafy orb floating there, a rat's nest of tendrils trailing underneath it. It possesses a single, unblinking eye that acts as a botanical searchlight. It sweeps the zone again before moving on with its patrol. You can see several more patrolling in the distance, walking a vigilant orbit around a huge, floating, one-eyed seed. You seem to have eluded its notice for the time being. Maybe if you can evade its sentries, you'll be able to reach your goal without being embroiled in an unnecessary fight? =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
The Golem's arm sheers upwards through the ceiling and wall at an angle, tearing away vines and plucking trees and roots from their very anchorpoints in the building before going still. Into this chaos, Claude swings his sword. Tearing stone pillars rise through the rest of the foliage beneath, providing a point for Gwen to ascend, particularly as Eleanor's wand coats the rest in ice, holding the stones together.
From there, it's simply a matter of Claude and Gwen knocking the rest of the wall down.
Avril follows at a remove, taking a moment to have a much needed deep breath. For a moment back there, it had felt as if she had been entombed...
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
The core is just beyond.
A person can feel it in the air of this place, the gentle glow of the moss offsetting the protective darkness that falls over this area. The canopy is letting no light through at this point; it may as well be a ceiling.
The courier's hand sweeps past a pillar that turns out to be a remote monitor, the screen flickering with lines of dead pixels. Still, a part is readable.
Gwen would read it aloud, but her eyes are drawn to another source of light, sweeping the area just beyond.
A sentry. And more of them, beyond that.
They're so close. However, they can't afford to handle another brawl like before, Gwen is certain of this as she feels the shake in her right ARM.
The first one, the courier tries to handle, producing a metal tool used for ARM repair. In this case, she uses it to reflect a bit of the residual light from the monitor away, bouncing it noticably for the eye to possibly notice.
It's now or never.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Courier Kit toward her party's challenge, Galem the Gazer.
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny slumps forward a little, breathing heavily, his shoulders rising and falling methodically. That shot took... well, not everything he had, but damned near. And now, to discover that they've got another gauntlet to run through...
The big blonde sighs. He is too tired for this.
Claude suddenly breaks into a shambling run that eventually makes it into a dead sprint toward the seed. "IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'M AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA DIIIIISTRAAAAAAAAAAAACTIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!" he shouts at the tops his lungs. "WIIIIIIIIIIITNEEEEEEEEESS MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
He is about 3/4 of the way across when it occurs to him to wonder whether these robots can hear.
DG: Claude C. Kenny has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Galem the Gazer.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Avril may just bring up the rear of their merry little band, but she sees it, quickly enough...! Raising a hand to her mouth, she glances at each of the others in turn, as if she were attempting to communicate that one important message to them:
Don't speak. Maybe it can hear.
And then she watches Gwen as she draws out a particular metal tool and similarly -- as quietly as she can -- pulls out her mirror.
This time, it is put to a more practical end. It's still a mirror, whatever its other powers.
She tries to indicate to Eleanor and Claude that perhaps they should take take advantage of the distraction that they're producing when--
Well, when Claude happens to it.
She almost calls out after him.
But prudence -- and practicality -- are also watchwords of the Ice Queen, even as she is now.
She'll honor your sacrifice, Claude.
Avril makes tracks.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Mirror of De Soto toward her party's challenge, Galem the Gazer.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Gwen's light happens. Claude absolutely happens. Eleanor briefly stares at him. But only briefly--because Avril starts moving and Eleanor gets the same idea. One more time she casts the Wakeful Sign, and starts to take off too. She includes Claude in it though.
"Oh, be careful!" she says, but quietly, too quietly for him to hear. She frets a little while she runs. But she absolutely does run.
Her earring is glowing again though. So there's that.
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Acuity Crest toward her party's challenge, Galem the Gazer.
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Galem the Gazer *>======================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- ...I meet my end, I have prepared a guardian to ensure my work does not fall into the wrong hands and to shepherd the creations I have left behind... FINAL CHALLENGE: You emerge from the walls of vine and wood into a dimly lit grove nestled between the roots of a massive tree. The only illumination you can see in this place is that which you bring with you, and the gentle glow of the moss and fungus of the forest understory. The air is damp and smells faintly of fresh loam. Just as you think you're in the clear, however, a brilliant beam of light sweeps across the boughs and bushes. Its source is obvious; there's some kind of leafy orb floating there, a rat's nest of tendrils trailing underneath it. It possesses a single, unblinking eye that acts as a botanical searchlight. It sweeps the zone again before moving on with its patrol. You can see several more patrolling in the distance, walking a vigilant orbit around a huge, floating, one-eyed seed. You seem to have eluded its notice for the time being. Maybe if you can evade its sentries, you'll be able to reach your goal without being embroiled in an unnecessary fight? =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify==================================================
=====================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl - Round 7 *>===================== =========================< Results - Galem the Gazer >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Claude C. Kenny 74 --(101)--> 175 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 74 --(101)--> 175 Fail Acuity Crest 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 74 --(101)--> 175 Fail Courier Kit 1 Wits Effects: Resilient and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 74 --(101)--> 175 Fail Mirror of De Soto 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Claude C. Kenny 90 --(10)--> 100 Fail Conditions: Overwhelm|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Claude C. Kenny is too exhausted to continue! DG: Eleanor Klein is too exhausted to continue! DG: Gwen Whitlock is too exhausted to continue! DG: Avril Vent Fleur is too exhausted to continue! DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Claude C. Kenny has successfully explored The Lifeweaver's Whorl!
==========================<* The Lifeweaver's Whorl *>========================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Fruits of Knowledge *>====================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- It is said that the transmission of knowledge is one form of immortality. Sometimes I wonder if I should have taken another path. Taken a student, perhaps. That would have been nice... Beyond the guardian, hidden in a nook beneath a bough of the great tree, there is an innocuous path forward that terminates in an unusually unentangled doorway. It slides open with a quiet hiss and allows you to enter what looks to be a personal laboratory. Meticulously recorded notes are piled in stacks alongside tomes carefully detailing experiment after experiment, both their methodologies and their results. But the most valuable find in all of this is the contents of the computer console at the far end of the room. It's a compilation of a man's work over the course of untold ages. A veritable mountain of observations on Filgaia's slow decay over the past few centuries, as well as a veritable encyclopedia of botanical, zoological and ecological insights straight out of the mind of a master in all three fields. There's a data storage device nearby, as if the author had intended for someone- anyone- to take his work and do something with it. Of course, the problem then becomes finding a means of transcribing it all... But perhaps there are some people out there who might be able to help. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Can the robots hear? Goooood question.
While the lights of Gwen's repair tool, Avril's mirror, and Eleanor's earring are confusing by themselves, Claude is the one that manages to score big with gaining the attention of a good batch of them, literally stealing the spotlight, for whatever it's worth.
It turns out they can hear. Go figure.
----ONE RECOLLECTED CLAUDE LATER----
"Auntie would be ecstatic over somethin' like this..." Gwen looks around her in open-mouthed wonder.
"Even one part of this... it'd make up for any holes in her library. She might even get back to her original studies!"
A pause.
"... Whatever those there. Somethin' like this, I guess."
Regeneration, synchronization. The two concepts aren't really related, right?
<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.
Claude C. Kenny would probably have something to offer, but he is sort of snoring, unconscious, 230 pounds of mass just splayed out on the floor of the lab.
...carrying him out would suck a lot.