2020-10-18: The Long Road to Freedom
- Log: The Long Road to Freedom
- Cast: Seraph Clarine, Catenna, Seraph Boudicca, Avril Vent Fleur, Cyre H. Lorentz
- Where: Bevelle - The Walls
- Date: October 18, 2020
- Summary: Deposited into Via Purifico, a group of Shamans and Seraphs (and Avril) seek their freedom... regardless of the difficult road ahead.
==============================<* Via Purifico *>============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Finding Your Friends *>==================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The tunnels of Via Purifico are damp. Ancient stone, colored green by moss and other plant life, makes up the walls and floors. Here and there, patterns of red stone from the original construction may be seen. Lamps on the floor light it, here and there; machina lamps, ancient and still functioning, give some hope of navigating. People cast down here have landed in different places, after being dropped down from Bevelle above. You have found yourself in one room. The only thing to do is search -- and hope to find other members before long. =Dungeon Conditions: Madness, Overwhelm, Tire=================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
It has been a long, excruciating wait, spent in dreary cells. But finally, their punishment has been decided. Those who stood against Yevon have been sentenced to Via Purifico - the river of purification. If they manage to escape with their lives, they're free.
And if they do not... then they will be among the many others who fell here. And so, over time, the prisoners and their belongings have been dropped into Via Purifico from different locations. Where have they ended up? Who can say?
The fall is painful, but survivable. This is true for Clarine, to whom gravity has only a tenuous grasp, as well as the more physical members of the party.
And so, Clarine finds herself alone in a room. The light shed by the machina lamps and the glyphs on the wall is dim. Clarine flexes her fingers for a moment. She raises a hand... and, slowly, a ball of light begins to form. A genuine smile crosses her face for the first time since she was captured by Yevon. Her magic is no longer sealed within her form. Then, does that mean...? Clarine turns her eyes toward the wall. She approaches one, and lays her hand against it.
...And then she frowns, and tries to push. The wall does not budge. She does not phase through it.
"...Ah. Disappointing..." Clarine murmurs to herself. It seems that wouldn't work. With a gesture, she brings out a sphere of pure clear crystal. It lights up, then, shedding light all around. And with that, Clarine begins to move.
To those who see it, the light emanating from the sphere may well act as a beacon, to help draw those together who have been abandoned down here.
...Or, maybe it's a sign of danger. Only one way to find out!
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Brilliant Sphere toward her party's challenge, Finding Your Friends.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Pulling herself up from the fall, Catenna looks up in the direction she came.
The room is lonely and empty. If there is anyone else in this place, they're a far cry from where she's landed, with little more than the prison tunic she was given when her equipment was taken from her. She brushes herself off soundlessly, maintaining her composure as she glances to one side, then the other.
Moving to one of the lamps, she looks up at it for a moment, then down the hallway nearest to her. Silent, she listens, her head cocked.
And she hears it. A soft rustle, imperceptible to anyone but her. More felt than heard.
<I was wondering when they would let you out.> Ghosting down in a lazy spiral, a large white owl descends out of the gloom. Saarda-Shanta is carrying a bundle in her talons - a bundle from which a glint of silver dances.
Gazing up, Catenna smiles faintly and holds her arms out to accept the package. "How were you able to get these?"
The Great Owl manages a disdainful psychic snort. <You overestimate Yevon, child.>
"I may." Unwrapping the package, Catenna sorts through her supplies, laying her hand on her Silver Medium for a long moment. When she finally looks up, it's with a tensing of her jaw.
"Cyre is in here somewhere," she says, voice quiet and determined. "I will not leave him." She begins to start forward.
She pauses and looks down.
A shadow moves on the wall, cast by a lamp. There is a rustle. A tunic is cast aside and a dancer's garb is donned.
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Saarda-Shanta toward her party's challenge, Finding Your Friends.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Down Boudicca goes.
This is what she says to her captors, as they escort her down to the drop: "I am sorry."
She does not speak with acid.
Her manifestation has WEIGHT, even if she trivialises it by might of air. Steel is heavy; she is heavy. But as she comes to the ground her first reaction is an updraft, and this time it works, and rather than clattering down she comes gently to rest.
In a way, it makes sense. Her tonfa are secured at her belt again. They even gave her back her leaves. Boudicca doubts they realise the significance of dried earthland, but it is a boon all the same.
She finds herself in a darkened alcove, flickering lights leading out to the paths. The hope she is given by the return of her casual magics is dashed as she tries to double back through the alcove wall - only to walk into it, quite solidly. "I am beginning to rather resent pyreflies," Boudicca remarks, under her breath, as she rubs at her nose. ... at least her head is protected by that great horned helm.
And so instead Boudicca turns towards the prescribed path. She has never been one for navigation in human settlements; their ideas of a home have always been a little baffling to her. But Boudicca does not know the cardinal rule of being lost: staying where one is. She gets moving.
Boudicca does have one trick up her sleeve, though. Or, rather: in the chartreuse backpack they have returned to her. She grasps a pack of trail mix, and slowly, deliberately, leaves a trail of seeds behind her as she walks.
At least this way she won't go in circles. And maybe it will help someone find her..?
DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Emergency Supplies toward her party's challenge, Finding Your Friends.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Eventually, Yevon had come to a conclusion about what was to be done with them. And that conclusion had been--
Execution, in a sense. They were to walk a road of purification, one which they had been informed no other had trod and survived.
It's dark in here, this pit into which she has fallen. It's cold, and she's alone. It's a familiar nightmare.
It seems unreal to her, now. Perhaps it's all because of the derealization that has, again, subsumed the young woman under the full weight of this place and its darkness: she doesn't feel fear, even in this place, even here.
But, it is a fair question to ask: would she feel fear even if she had not suffered that isolation and endured that strange dream? If she had not been separated from her friends? Even if she were here in the dark.
Her mind is full of clouds and her body seems numb. Nothing seems real. But even so, her mind feels sharp. Her desire is keen.
Rising to her feet, she stands stock still for a moment, her gaze lifted as if to regard some distant point. The mirror is in her hands. She doesn't remember taking it out.
As if sleepwalking, she starts forward, light blooming off the mirror's surface. Her lips move, as if she were in a trance.
"...is impossible if..."
"...don't give up..."
She'll head in the direction her intuition guides her.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Mirror of De Soto toward her party's challenge, Finding Your Friends.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
This is a sticky situation if ever there's been one. To speak quite honestly though, Cyre Lorentz has always expected that he'd be placed in some kind of religious incarceration! He has, after all, never been afraid of being a vocal proponent of his own faith-- and besides that, an unrepentent, willful heretic who enthusiastically throws the metaphorical bird at organized religion in general. It was inevitable that he'd be Inquisitioned, really! But he had expected Granas to pull the trigger first, not... These weird moon-ocean-cultists.
Also something he hadn't expected: moon-ocean-cultists having some kind of (un?)holy labyrinth into which they throw all their heretics. His only saving grace is that the Yevonites could never have predicted the lengths to which this particular heretic would go to preserve and protect the icon of his faith.
As soon as he's confident that the darkness has consumed him and the familiar sensation of terminal velocity sinks into his gut, Cyre calls upon the great spirit of the wind. Distant though it may be, the Silver Medium acts as a signal amplifier beyond compare, and the air itself seems to gather to cushion his fall.
The stone is cold beneath his feet. The air is damp and chill and smells faintly of seawater and the undisturbed dust of the ages. Cyre takes little time to adjust to the relative darkness, his eyes glowing faintly as they reflect what small amount of light fills the tunnels.
He has little time to waste now. Catenna is here somewhere, and he can't just let her wander through this maze alone. With a small amount of exertion, Cyre bids the stale air to stir, to carry to him the scents that fill the Path of Purification. Keen senses strain to pick out the familiar smell of his lovely lady, one that will eventually lead him to her.
Sometimes, beastman senses really do come in handy.
A soft rustle of cloth falls to the ground next to him, breaking Cyre's reverie. It's... his parachute! And a few other familiar tools, including a very empty bottle. Looks like someone managed to get it open safely-- or maybe they didn't, and there's a very unhappy Yevonite somewhere up there who owes his busted eardrums entirely to his own bad life choices. Cyre shrugs apathetically and slings the pack over his shoulders-- he's got a Catenna to track!
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Finding Your Friends.
==============================<* Via Purifico *>============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Finding Your Friends *>==================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The tunnels of Via Purifico are damp. Ancient stone, colored green by moss and other plant life, makes up the walls and floors. Here and there, patterns of red stone from the original construction may be seen. Lamps on the floor light it, here and there; machina lamps, ancient and still functioning, give some hope of navigating. People cast down here have landed in different places, after being dropped down from Bevelle above. You have found yourself in one room. The only thing to do is search -- and hope to find other members before long. =Dungeon Conditions: Madness, Overwhelm, Tire=================================
=========================<* Via Purifico - Round 1 *>========================= ======================< Results - Finding Your Friends >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Clarine 0 --(12)--> 12 Pass Brilliant Sphere 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 0 --(12)--> 12 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(12)--> 12 Fail Mirror of De Soto 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Boudicca 0 --(12)--> 12 Fail Emergency Supplies 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Catenna 0 --(12)--> 12 Pass Saarda-Shanta 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Clarine 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Madness|Overwhelm|Tire(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Seraph Clarine has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine glides throughout the pathways of Via Purifico, her sphere casting light ahead of her. In a way, Yevon may have made a critical error. Navigation, especially through mazes, is a specialty of hers. She remembers instinctively every pathway she's taken. There is something about this place that dulls her senses - whether it is the pyreflies that flutter throughout or the glyphs that line the walls. But regardless, she moves forward.
But, she is not the only one who finds herself traversing the halls with ease. Catenna, with Saarda-Shanta's help, will be able to easily make her way through. There's someone she must find, after all.
For the others, it is not so easy. This place is a true labyrinth, after all. The path is twisting and turning, and it is easy to lose one's way... often, it seems like it is working against you. There's a reason why no one, to this point, has escaped it.
As Clarine continues forward, she eventually comes upon a trail of seeds. They're familiar. She follows them, eventually finding...
"Boudicca...!" Clarine greets, relief. "It is so good to see you... I was unsure if there were any others here..."
And it is not far beyond that, that the light of Clarine's sphere will catch on the Mirror of De Soto - Avril may be able to follow this back to its source.
And not far from that, Catenna and Cyre will be able to reunite...
And eventually, the five of them will meet up together.
"I am glad that you are all well... I am tired of this place. Let us away, before further misfortune befalls us..." Clarine suggests.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>=============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Flood Gate Locks *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This is an underwater challenge. You path leads you into one of the tunnels that is flooded. After diving into the water, you find that the flooded tunnel is blocked by an immense floodgate. There is a mechanical control to operate the floodgate, with Spiran glyphs written to explain its somewhat complicated operation. However, two problems present themselves. First, you need to figure out how the controls work. Second, once the floodgate lifts, there will be a torrential flood that will pull you with it unless you are very careful. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Injure==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
One floaty woman finds another, without footsteps to announce them. "Oh - Clarine!" Boudicca exclaims, turning, when she hears her. The relief floods her face, too. "Thank goodness... I am so glad to see you!" And, thankfully, Clarine does know where to go. Boudicca's relief on seeing Avril is as joyous - as when their group finds Catenna and Cyre.
She has friends! Who are alive! Step two: keep them alive. (This isn't so much of a worry with Clarine, but everyone else...)
There's a flooded tunnel, and Boudicca pauses, before she wades in... and floats over the surface. Ducking down under the water, she's at least able to see what the issue is. "There is a flood gate we must operate," she surmises, "but I fear the currents will be quite difficult when it opens."
And so, she pulls from her pack... a length of rope! "This ought help keep us together," she decides, sensibly. "I will endeavour to ensure you have air to breathe, but please take care. Water is not a permanent environment for mortals!"
True to her word, with a cantrip of air, her friends will receive AIR BUBBLES around their heads to help them breathe underwater. This is Boudicca's standard approach to underwater challenges! Air is important for humans.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Emergency Supplies toward her party's challenge, Flood Gate Locks.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
There's another shining light Catenna is pursuing. Cyre will, suddenly, hear the sound of footsteps.
Catenna practically throws herself into his arms and hugs him for dear life. Her head nestles into his chest as she squeezes her eyes closed. For just this precious moment, in the beats before others can discover them, she and him are alone, with only one another in this nightmarish place.
He is all Catenna needed to see to feel better.
Others soon join them, and a rather more graceful Catenna, hand in hand with Cyre, inclines her head slowly. "Yes... there is a way out, I am certain. If we work together, we can succeed here."
A flooded tunnel waits for them ahead. Catenna lowers her eyelids slightly. "If I knew this would be here, I would not have changed," she sighs as she unclasps something at her hips.
The dancing outfit Catenna wears in Spira is modular - the skirt and belt-train element simply clip on. She slips them off. What's left is basically a bikini. She wades into the tunnel and submerges with ease once Boudicca's explained the situation.
Taking ahold of the rope, she draws a breath once Boudicca calls up the air bubble. She sinks deeper into the water, checking out the controls for a moment.
"Let me try something," she recommends, before focusing and holding a hand out - and behind the floodgate, there is an odd-sounding ripple and groan.
The pressure on the gate eases - the water behind it isn't pressing as hard. It's as if it's flowing towards a source of gravity behind it, away from the group.
<Bother! I hate water levels,> grouses Saarda-Shanta, puttering along in the water in a contraption that looks for all the world like a fishbowl with a little propeller and a couple of little owlclaw-operated pedals.
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Saarda-Shanta toward her party's challenge, Flood Gate Locks.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Navigating by scent is not the easiest task, especially when the person you're trying to track hasn't actually left a trail to follow. Cyre is operating on a few hints, a lot of hope and maybe just a few prayers (specifically formulated to the Guardians so that no foreign divinity inhabiting this place can listen in). But gradually, the smell grows stronger and more distinct, and soon...
Catenna throws herself into his arms, and Cyre throws his arms around her waist, holding her close. For a few moments, they are alone and that is absolutely fine.
It means he can sneak in a bit of a snog before anyone happens upon them. And for a few moments afterwards, in fact.
But it doesn't last for long, because there are others here. Others who Cyre is very pleased to find are in good health. "You guys got thrown in here too, huh...?" But where's Dean? Usually he's attached to Avril at the hip, but...
Well. Best not to bring it up. Cyre takes Catenna by the hand and they move on together.
...To just one of the many water level mainstays. "Flooded passage, huh?" Cyre observes, even though his gaze is on something else entirely right now.
Bikinis are a wonderful invention, Cyre thinks to himself as he weaves some of his own magic to supplement Boudicca's own.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Flood Gate Locks.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
The way is dark and full of twists and turns. Indeed, her only light is the soft flickering glow that burns off the mirror's surface, eventually swallowed by the dark. It becomes nearly a meditational endeavor: her mind subsumes to the surface of the mirror, until the only thing she notices anymore is its surface and the light. Everything else -- every sensation -- is discarded. Even her voice, in time.
Until there is a light upon her mirror that does not come from within it. She stirs from her trance and pauses for but a moment.
And then and there Avril breaks into a run for the light.
"Clarine! Boudicca--"
Avril may suit her title, but while this is no reunion on par with the one atop the Warwing Varukias, there is still no mistaking the expression on her face. She is, without reservation, grateful.
"I am... glad to see all of you," she says, mirror pressed against her chest. "I had thought..."
That she would walk this road alone.
But she shakes her head and simply smiles, instead. "Well, shall we? The sun and our friends await!"
First, though, there is this tunnel to circumvent. "Oh... I see," she remarks, she says, gazing at the pool... before jumping into the depths. She would have done it and braved it regardless, but the fact that Boudicca gives them airbubbles is really the icing on the cake.
Beneath the depths, she floats by the switches, mirror still in her grasp. The surface even here glimmers with a soft light as Avril regards their options and says--
"The one on the far left. ...You must turn it gently."
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Mirror of De Soto toward her party's challenge, Flood Gate Locks.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine is relieved to see that there are others here. Others who are alright - well, as alright can be expected - and in a condition to escape. It gives her hope that her other friends will be alright, as well. Avril calls her name, and Clarine sends her a relieved smile.
"Avril... I am glad to see you, as well." She greets. And, Cyre and Catenna are here, too!
"Indeed we did..." Clarine admits to Cyre reluctantly. "It is... a shame. By the time they were upon us, I was too exhausted to do anything..."
Their path, after that, leads them down a flooded tunnel. A grimace crosses Clarine's face.
"...I... do not suppose there is another way? ...No, I suppose not..." She says, with a sigh. The water does not pose the same difficulty to her as it does to mortals. She doesn't have a physical body, after all - she doesn't need to breathe.
...But, there is another issue.
Clarine submerges herself, and as she does, her form becomes shimmery, and indistinct around the edges. And when she moves, gliding through the water as she does through the air, it's... much slower. It's not painful, but it is unpleasant.
"I will... assist as best I can." Clarine says. Her sphere moves closer to the floodgate and brightens. It can be fairly dark underwater - this will at least ensure that they have a better source of light to work by.
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Brilliant Sphere toward her party's challenge, Flood Gate Locks.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>=============================== =======================<* CHALLENGE - Flood Gate Locks *>======================= |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This is an underwater challenge. You path leads you into one of the tunnels that is flooded. After diving into the water, you find that the flooded tunnel is blocked by an immense floodgate. There is a mechanical control to operate the floodgate, with Spiran glyphs written to explain its somewhat complicated operation. However, two problems present themselves. First, you need to figure out how the controls work. Second, once the floodgate lifts, there will be a torrential flood that will pull you with it unless you are very careful. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Injure==========================================
==========================<* Via Purifico - Round 2 *>========================== =========================< Results - Flood Gate Locks >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Clarine 12 --(8)--> 20 Pass Brilliant Sphere 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 12 --(8)--> 20 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 12 --(8)--> 20 Pass Mirror of De Soto 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 12 --(8)--> 20 Fail Emergency Supplies 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Catenna 12 --(8)--> 20 Pass Saarda-Shanta 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Clarine 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Clarine has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca, who without assistance just sort of bobs over the surface of the water because air is lighter than that lifegiving liquid, remarks to Saarda-Shanta: "They can be quite bothersome challenges."
Meanwhile, underwater, it's possible to see what one is doing thanks to the light Clarine sheds, alongside the softer light of Avril's mirror. She manages to divine just what to change. It's Catenna's magic which ensures that the opening isn't catastrophic - there's still pressure, but it's not enough to tear everyone from each other, as the gate opens.
And luckily, Cyre thinks to bolster Boudicca's magic, because she is briefly distracted from her air magics when the floodgates open. They'll be able to breathe..!
DG: Seraph Clarine has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Via Purifico *>============================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Faulty Machina Wiring *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This is an underwater challenge. Your path leads you to another tunnel that is completely submerged. You swim down into a long, wide tunnel, but one that would barely be enough to stand upright in (were the tunnel not flooded). There are also lights on the walls, but this is the problem. Some work, but others are damaged. Sparks and lightning sometimes arc out into the water, shooting towards metal on the other side -- and expand outward, making wide areas of electrified water that are extremely dangerous to cross. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Suffer=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Everyone will have a brief moment to experience fresh air (well, okay, maybe just... air) as the pathway past the floodgate ramps upward, giving them some time on dry ground (...similarly, maybe it's just 'ground' at this point).
Beyond that, however, the pathway dips down again. It's a long, wide tunnel, but a short one. Were it not flooded and forcing them to swim, Boudicca would likely have to duck. Clarine, briefly, appreciates being tiny.
Lights help mark the way forward, but... there's a problem - several of them are damaging and sparking, occasionally electrifying the water. This is not good for a living body. It isn't pleasant for a Seraph, either, even though it wouldn't be fatal for them.
"...Hm. Oh dear..." Clarine murmurs, worrying for a brief moment. Would this be a dead end for them...? "Um... please allow me to try something."
Clarine draws out a prism. She's starting to run low on them - she'll have to conserve what she has before she can make more. The prism floats through the air and into the water, pressing itself up against of the damage lights. As light flows through it, the prism emits a wall of shimmering rainbow light.
Perhaps this will be enough to prevent the flow of electricity into the water...? At least, from this section - there's still more to contend with.
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Prismatic Projector toward her party's challenge, Faulty Machina Wiring.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Pulling herself out of the water, Catenna draws a deep breath before collecting the Owlet Submersible Unit in her arms.
Falling into step with Cyre, she moves along behind Clarine, letting the woman's light guide the way. But as they move along, the pathway once again dips.
Catenna is, momentarily, glad she didn't finish clipping her skirt back on. Once again she sinks into the water, lowering herself and following the light.
Until she can follow it no more, anyway. The lights ahead spark dangerously, and the Moon Shaman bubbles something cautionary as she backs off, holding her hand out and pushing out a magical bubble of gravity as if to try and keep the charged water from roasting her.
When she bobs to the surface again, she draws a breath, then looks towards Cyre. "I do not know if we can predict those lights. Water will simply spread the charge around."
<Now this is where I suggest something foolish,> comes a suggestion from the glass globe in Catenna's arms. She looks down with a blink.
A few moments pass.
<Why do I volunteer,> sighs Saarda-Shanta as the Owlet Submersible Unit goes paddling gamely through the water. Dangling below and behind it is one of Catenna's dancing fans.
The little submarine goes puttering along the wall with a steady bubbling sound. The fan dangles behind it, brushing along the wall - and as it goes, Saarda-Shanta attempts to drag the fan over each light fixture in time. The glazed owl pod is pretty well insulated from the electricity - and the fan, at least, seems to do a good job of soaking up incidental charges and keeping them out of reach of squishy humans.
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Feather Fans toward her party's challenge, Faulty Machina Wiring.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"And you, as well?" she asks of Cyre and Catenna, regarding them both as if to consider their health and status. "I hope that all of us," perhaps indicating those of them who are not present but also braving Via Purifico, "are able to successfully escape."
The road is more river than path, it seems. Even though they have the blessings of air well in hand between the lot of them, the situation is one that may prove challenging -- or worse, should they err.
But floodgate is opened without incident, and Avril has a moment to take a much-needed breath of fresh air--
Before the next obstacle in their path lies ahead. "Oh... dear," murmurs Avril, a hand touched to her lips as she regards the way forward and the electrical current that disperses into the water.
The mirror in her grasp is gone, replaced by the Medium. Avril kneels a moment by the water. "Please..."
Clarine's magic might help stay the electricity, but whether or not it works, they'll have to move quickly, and fly through the water as fast as the Sea Guardian herself.
"Lucadia--!"
There is a flash of white light from the Medium.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, Faulty Machina Wiring.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"I am sure they are well," Boudicca reassures Avril, of their missing friends. "They are stalwart and brave, and they are used to not walking through walls, so they have the advantage of experience." Boudicca might not walk through walls terribly often, but she is deeply upset the option has been taken from her.
(That's not the main reason she's deeply upset, but, well... she has to keep herself together. Her friends are counting on her!)
And so Boudicca manages to get herself to more or less go underwater, as the path goes down again, but she still scrapes the ceiling. She'd do that anyway, but, well... water is hard.
"This light is problematic," Boudicca frowns, because not all light is as friendly and way-lighting as Seraph Clarine. She could talk even underwater, because if not having lungs or lips or a functional throat stopped her as Beast then this certainly won't - but she's conveniently still making sure people have air pockets to breathe, so it even makes narrative sense. "I am unsure how well this will work submerged, but..."
She grabs some (slightly soggy) leaves from her pouch, and... she... can't crunch them in hand. They are too damp. "Bother," she exclaims, and physically resorts to tearing a leaf in two to release the air magic trapped within.
A gust of wind underwater might help them swim more quickly, right..?
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Pretty much all of us," Cyre answers Avril with a helpless shrug. "I guess all this doo-gooding and shoving our noses into places we shouldn't be was bound to come due sooner or later. Damn us meddling kids, and so on and so forth. Don't worry, though-- at least this time we don't have a horde of Reaverbots chasing us down, right?"
Right.
"But no, we're doing alright more or less. But--" The water, which Cyre has been quite contentedly paddling through, abruptly takes on a distinctively energetic quality with which he is far too familiar. His ears perk up at the sensation of a faint buzzing that tickles his upper arms mid-stroke. This sensation can only be... "...Water's electrified up ahead, I'm guessing. Damn, not surprised that Yevon wouldn't bother performing any maintenance down here... Or that there's supposedly heretical machina in their holy heretic-murdering maze. Hm."
The Owlet suggests something foolish.
"Don't worry," says the worst influence in the world, "I've got your back!" It seems that they'd had the same idea. Cyre doesn't have a fan, but he does have an electrically-insulated parachute that he used to use to pick fights with his twin brother. The beastman dips under the water and darts toward the next-nearest bit of exposed wiring, even as...
...Even as Boudicca tries to... make tea...?
Cyre is pretty sure that this isn't the right time or the right place, Boudicca!!
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Reverse Parachute toward his party's challenge, Faulty Machina Wiring. DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Breezeruffle Leaves toward her party's challenge, Faulty Machina Wiring.
==============================<* Via Purifico *>============================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - Faulty Machina Wiring *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This is an underwater challenge. Your path leads you to another tunnel that is completely submerged. You swim down into a long, wide tunnel, but one that would barely be enough to stand upright in (were the tunnel not flooded). There are also lights on the walls, but this is the problem. Some work, but others are damaged. Sparks and lightning sometimes arc out into the water, shooting towards metal on the other side -- and expand outward, making wide areas of electrified water that are extremely dangerous to cross. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Suffer=============================================
=========================<* Via Purifico - Round 3 *>========================= =====================< Results - Faulty Machina Wiring >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Clarine 20 --(22)--> 42 Pass Prismatic Projector 1 Agility Effects: Fanfare and Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 20 --(22)--> 42 Pass Reverse Parachute 1 Agility Effects: Rally and Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 20 --(22)--> 42 Pass Sea Medium 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Boudicca 20 --(22)--> 42 Pass Breezeruffle Leaves 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Catenna 20 --(22)--> 42 Pass Feather Fans 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Clarine 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Slow(2)|Suffer(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Seraph Clarine has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"...I do, as well." Clarine agrees with a nod toward Avril. As for walking through walls... Clarine sends a grim-faced nod of agreement in Boudicca's direction. It seems they're both in agreement there.
And then, Clarine looks toward Cyre.
"It is true that tendency may occasionally backfire, but... it is actions like those that may yet serve to incite change where change must occur." She says.
And now, it's time to try and make their way through the perilous waters. Their methods can largely be divided into two groups - those who serve to try and hasten the party's passage through the water, and those who try to mitigate the electrical charge coursing through the water.
Saarda-Shanta, in adorable owlet-sized submersible, putters along the walls. Indeed - both fan and pod prove quite effective at soaking up electricity. Cyre's parachute and Clarine's barrier prove similarly effective. Some electricity may yet leak through...
But that is where Boudicca and Avril come in. Avril calls upon the power of the Sea Guardian to see them through the water quickly, and as they fly through the waters, Boudicca conjures an underwater wind that pushes them past even further.
By working together, they will all make it to the otherside before anyone is in danger of being zapped!
"That may have been a little too close, I think...but I am glad we made it." Clarine says, with a sigh of relief.
...It's a practiced gesture imitating humans, since she doesn't actually need air.
DG: Catenna has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Aqua Flan and Bat Eyes *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The tunnels of Via Purifico are not empty. Fiends inhabit this place, as the deaths of so many prisoners over the centuries have filled it with pyreflies and precious few Sendings. As you move down this hallway, several of them appear: a group of Water Flans, with a pair of flying eyeballs with bat wings, known as Bat Eyes. They hover up above you, screech, and then come rushing forward. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure, Tire======================================
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
With a smile, Catenna collects both Saarda-Shanta and her rather scorched-looking fan. "That was very noble of you, Saarda-Shanta."
<I am never doing that again!>
The Moon Shaman bows her head, suppressing a bit of mirth, before looking up to Clarine again. "Yes... we have survived this much, at least. If we stay together, we can find our way."
Only now does she finish re-attaching her skirt. Once again in Spira dryland fit, she lets Saarda-Shanta return to her shoulder, then takes her bow in hand and begins to move ahead. This time the lead is hers to take, and she moves with silence and grace, alert for danger as she weaves through the corridors, down one stretch, around another turn, this way and that.
Until something wet and hideous begins to drip down from the ceiling. Catenna jerks back and draws an arrow, but as the group of Water Flans swell and surge towards them, she holds her fire. An arrow won't do much against gelatin.
The incoming Bat Eyes are another story. A pair of them come screeching in, and she snaps off an arrow at one before darting back with a short jump.
"Watch out for the gelatins!" she calls before flicking her now-empty shooting hand. She calls up a surge of gravity, an unseen force pulling the Flans into the ground to try and squash and splatter them.
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Celesdue Medium toward her party's challenge, Aqua Flan and Bat Eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Sighing is an effective form of communication! Even if sometimes Boudicca forgets how it works, and just brings a breeze in.
Speaking of which: there's a nice warm breeze to help dry everyone off after those unfortunate water adventures, just because trying to move around while damp is, apparently, a deeply unpleasant experience.
This might have worked wonders, were it not for drip, drip, drip...
"Ah--!" Boudicca exclaims, as the Flans and Bat Eyes drop in. "Pray, be quick!" It's not just a plea; it's also, conveniently, air magic to bolster their speed and reflexes, to help Catenna draw her arrows with alacrity.
Sometimes breezes have more magic than warmth to them!
DG: Seraph Boudicca has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Aqua Flan and Bat Eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"Yes. Together... together, we can overcome the challenges before us, I am certain." Clarine agrees with a nod. They all continue forward, and it isn't long before they are faced with a sample of the Fiends that make their home in Via Purifico. Water Flans and Bat Eyes... light is not especially effective on the former, and those are presently the foes that most need to be dealt with. And so, Clarine elects to step back and let the others handle the offence.
"Please, take one of these... May it help cleanse you of your fatigue..." Clarine requests, reaching into her sleeve and drawing from her supply of Panacea Bottles to offer to the others. This should help push them forward, even if just a little bit further.
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Panacea Bottle toward her party's challenge, Aqua Flan and Bat Eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Aw, you say that," Cyre, still quite soaked while Boudicca does her best to dry them all off, arches a finger to gently rub the crest of the little owlet's head. "But in this business, you'll find yourself doing all kinds of things you swore never to do again. Like trudge through sewers, or fight horrible incarnations of the evil within the heart of man. You'll get used to it eventually, little one. It's our job to do the things nobody else wants to do. It just means that when we complain about it, nobody gets to tell us that we can't!"
Clearly, Cyre has this whole Drifter business pretty well figured out.
But then!
Bats! And flans! And Cyre smiling like an evil little gremlin man as he holds a familiar silvery totem aloft. "Finally! I get to take that sucking chest wound out on something tangible!" Did you know that flying monsters don't like it when you hurl a catastrophic hurricane into them? Did you also know that slimes possess a small amount of dissolved air in their oozey forms, and that they are therefore basically ripe for popping like overfilled balloons if you know where to work your magic?
Cyre knows both of these things. It is with a healthy amount of spiteful triumph that the wind shaman calls upon the power of the atmosphere itself to undo the monsters that seek to bar their way...!
Also, he gratefully quaffs one of those bottles that Clarine offers. He can do both of these things at once, in fact. Hanging out with Jacqueline Barber long enough has seen Cyre pick up a few useful skills, including the hidden Personal Skill: Autopotion.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Gale Claw toward his party's challenge, Aqua Flan and Bat Eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"I suppose so," she admits ruefully to Cyre, before she glances away. "...Yes. You are correct. We must only find the light at the end of this tunnel! ...That is the saying, is it not?"
She similarly has a moment to answer Boudicca. "Yes... I am sure that they are," Avril says, even if a small part of her -- no, that part of her that extends deep into her personal abyss -- is worried. There is a pause, admittedly, when Boudicca makes that particular admission. "...Oh, I see," is what Avril settles for. A point for tact, for once--
"I hope that it did not hurt you." Which is immediately lost. Can't win them all.
But then, against that most dangerous water, they combine their efforts, and in a sense...
...they fly.
Gripping her Medium still on the other side, Avril nods the once at Clarine. "Yes... I would not wish to attempt such again."
Here the path leads onto dry land -- or dryer land, as it were. In these tunnels everything is suffused with the damp. Picking her steps carefully, Avril is trailing somewhat behind when they
have company.
In her hand is a blade. She rushes in, buoyed by Boudicca's breezes, and lays in with her sword.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Aqua Flan and Bat Eyes.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>=============================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - Aqua Flan and Bat Eyes *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The tunnels of Via Purifico are not empty. Fiends inhabit this place, as the deaths of so many prisoners over the centuries have filled it with pyreflies and precious few Sendings. As you move down this hallway, several of them appear: a group of Water Flans, with a pair of flying eyeballs with bat wings, known as Bat Eyes. They hover up above you, screech, and then come rushing forward. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Injure, Tire======================================
==========================<* Via Purifico - Round 4 *>========================== ======================< Results - Aqua Flan and Bat Eyes >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Clarine 42 --(10)--> 52 Pass Panacea Bottle 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 42 --(10)--> 52 Pass Gale Claw 3 Combat Effects: Sacrifice and Embolde -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 42 --(10)--> 52 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 42 --(10)--> 52 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Catenna 42 --(10)--> 52 Pass Celesdue Medium 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Clarine 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Slow(1)|Tire(2)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Seraph Clarine 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> Catenna has posed.
The flans and bat eyes have absolutely no chance in hell.
One of the bat eyes drops almost immediately, stricken through the pupil by Catenna's arrow. The flans slog along, flattening out as they slow down under the pull of gravity.
Then Cyre blows them up like balloons. The Flans swell and expand, bulging sickeningly, before several of them just burst into a spray of hideous fiendglobbery. It splatters all over the walls. Catenna curls her lips in momentary disgust.
As Clarine hands out bottles, it gives the group the vigor they need to continue - and Boudicca's alacrity does its share, too. The other Bat Eye falls as Catenna fires an arrow off far quicker than she has a right to, once again bulls-eyeing it dead on. It gives Avril the opening she needs.
Avril's blade reaves through what remains of the Flans, spewing them in all directions. By the time she's done, the corridor is splattered with watery gelatin that is no longer Flan.
<That was mercifully brief,> Saarda-Shanta quips from Catenna's shoulder.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has drawn a new Challenge.
==============================<* Via Purifico *>============================== ==============<* CHALLENGE - Evrae Altana - Close the Gates! *>=============== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This is an underwater challenge. You enter another stretch of tunnel that is utterly flooded. The deepest recesses of Via Purifico are almost entirely flooded, and these are inhabited by a new occupant: the Unsent version of the Great Beast of Bevelle, Evrae. After being slain at the hands of Althena's Guard, Evrae (now Unsent) has been sent into the depths to insure that no Drifters, Guardians, Summoners, or otherwise prove their innocence through trial. The creature swims up to you from around a corner. It is a long, serpent-like dragon, with fins on its head. It sends a blast of prismatic orbs of light at you, shooting forward to strike at you. However, it has not caught up yet. If you are quick, you may be able to strike two switches on a nearby wall, and slam a gate down in front of it, to buy a few precious moments. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Suffer, Injure=====================================
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Not so mercifully short: the amount of time that the party gets to spend above water. Seriously, how badly flooded even is Via Purifico? It's as if the Yevonites don't realize that their entire temple complex is built on shaky, uncertain ground that is slowly being eroded away by the constant ebb and rise of the tide of the sea.
This may be a bit of a metaphor.
"Maybe I should have packed my trunks," Cyre murmurs as the slides into the next stretch of flooded passageway. The group comes to it at a tee, where the slim passage of solid ground intersects perpendicular to the waterway. It's a devious trap, one that has Cyre unaware of the threat that lurks just below the water's surface.
There was once an enormous monster named Evrae that lived off the shore of Bevelle. Evrae was slain by Althena's loyal lapdogs who didn't even bother to give it a proper sending after they were done murdering it.
On Spira this is usually a problem. For the priesthood of Yevon, it was an opportunity.
The creature is enormous, and its fel presence can be felt even before its great fin breaches the surface of the water. Cyre feels a shiver run down his spine as every sense suddenly sharpens and every muscle tenses like drawn bowstrings. "Hold on," he murmurs, "Something's not right--"
A prismatic orb races past from the back end of the waterway, just narrowly missing Cyre as he ducks his head under the water to avoid it. He shoots back up to the surface, sucking in a great breath of air as the massive, serpentine dragon begins its charge. "Damnit, move, move!" His parachute unfurls as a massive burst of air shoots him away from the massive unsent... Toward what appears to be a huge sluice gate and the switches that operate it. Cyre has no idea how to make them work, but trying anything is better than fighting a giant sea dragon in its home environment.
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Reverse Parachute toward his party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Close the Gates!.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna lowers her eyelids at the sight of water and once again unclips her skirt. "This is why you wear something dual-purpose, dear heart," she murmurs to Cyre before leaning in to give his cheek a small kiss.
Once again she submerges, the Owlet Submersible Unit trailing behind her with a bubbly pop of propeller wake. She swims expertly along, not particularly impeded by the murk or water. She's used to swimming.
Things she's less sanguine about: Undead leviathans.
With a bubble of alarm, Catenna recoils from the emerging fiend, throwing her hand out in a burst of gravity to push herself away as fast as she can. Another blast of shimmering light sails out, and she twists away from it as best she can before flicking out both of her fans. By all rights they should do nothing but impede her underwater.
Somehow, they don't. She snaps them back - and with a gravity swell that churns out behind her, Catenna launches herself through the water like some sort of striking porpoise. The fans act as giant flippers, and she snaps them closed as she prepares to stroke, only to flip them open again for each push, boosting her along like a rocket. The huge sluice gate looms ahead.
<Someone tell it owls do not taste good!> Saarda-Shanta exclaims as the Owlet Submersible Unit pootles along with Catenna through sheer force of owl-paddling will.
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Feather Fans toward her party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Close the Gates!.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
They descend into the waters once more... but this time, they find themselves in a set of wide tunnels. There's something ominous ominous about them. And the realisation comes as, partway through their journey they're attacked by a great wyrm. Evrae - the guardian wyrm of Bevelle. It's here, rendered Unsent, and it attacks them with a blast of prismatic orbs.
"You would use light against me...? I reject you, wyrm!" Clarine intones. With a gesture Clarine disperses several of the prisms she used before, forming several walls of rainbow light to intercept the attack.
"I shall provide defense! Please see to the gate!" Clarine says. This is the task where she's most suited... but, she is at a distinct disadvantage underwater compared to the guardian wyrm, who does not have the same issues she does.
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Prismatic Projector toward her party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Close the Gates!.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
The blade vanishes soon after, Absolute Zero's hilt thereafter empty again. Without so much as a glance at the creatures which she felled, Avril continues onwards, the path ahead soon leading them towards...
Another flooded stretch. "I wonder whether these sections were intended to stymie those who would brave the path," she muses, approaching the water's edge. "Or, could it be that they are accidental?" Perhaps she's thinking similarly along the lines of Cyre. Slipping into the water, she glides forward, following his lead--
Until mere moments before the thing that lurks down here makes its appearance, she stops. "I... sense something coming," the young woman utters, treading water. She turns about--
Just as Evrae, unsent, makes its appearance. "No--" she gasps, but shock has only a moment to glide across her face before something harder takes its place.
"LUCADIA!" she shouts, and perhaps this will simply be sea dragon against sea dragon, as it were, as they both race the canal pathway for the gate ahead.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Close the Gates!.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"Only my pride," Boudicca replies, to Avril, though given she is a spiritual being, pride wounds might be more serious than they sound. (They are not.)
Cyre says a particular thing about chest wounds, and even in the din of battle, Boudicca cannot help but exclaim with horrified concern:
"Again?!"
PLEASE STOP EXPOSING YOUR HEART, CYRE!
Luckily, the Fiends are soundly defeated. Unluckily: more water. This would be bad enough, if not for --
"That...!" In a hurry, Boudicca tears some more leaves, to bring about more gusts of wind to give them artifical helpful currents. Wind can't do so much under water, but it is still fast.
DG: Seraph Boudicca has used her Tool Breezeruffle Leaves toward her party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Close the Gates!.
==============================<* Via Purifico *>============================== ==============<* CHALLENGE - Evrae Altana - Close the Gates! *>=============== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- This is an underwater challenge. You enter another stretch of tunnel that is utterly flooded. The deepest recesses of Via Purifico are almost entirely flooded, and these are inhabited by a new occupant: the Unsent version of the Great Beast of Bevelle, Evrae. After being slain at the hands of Althena's Guard, Evrae (now Unsent) has been sent into the depths to insure that no Drifters, Guardians, Summoners, or otherwise prove their innocence through trial. The creature swims up to you from around a corner. It is a long, serpent-like dragon, with fins on its head. It sends a blast of prismatic orbs of light at you, shooting forward to strike at you. However, it has not caught up yet. If you are quick, you may be able to strike two switches on a nearby wall, and slam a gate down in front of it, to buy a few precious moments. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Suffer, Injure=====================================
=========================<* Via Purifico - Round 5 *>========================= ================< Results - Evrae Altana - Close the Gates! >================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Clarine 52 --(22)--> 74 Pass Prismatic Projector 1 Agility Effects: Fanfare and Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cyre H. Lorentz 52 --(22)--> 74 Pass Reverse Parachute 1 Agility Effects: Rally and Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 52 --(22)--> 74 Pass Sea Medium 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Seraph Boudicca 52 --(22)--> 74 Pass Breezeruffle Leaves 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Catenna 52 --(22)--> 74 Pass Feather Fans 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Seraph Clarine 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Slow(2)|Suffer(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Seraph Clarine 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.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
"Not all of us can rock the bikini like you can, Cat! I don't think we're in the business of marketing functional mangerie yet!" Cyre yells in protest. Being a wind shaman, he always has an abundance of air with which to draw upon, even when trying to escape the hungry jaws of a giant undead serpent monster. One that is, as it so happens, being occupied by a second giant sea dragon for the time being. Lucadia's manifestation is not something that can be sustained for long periods here on the moon, but her temporary incarnation is nevertheless sufficient to buy time for the party to pick up a decent headstart.
"I had a good reason for it," he says to Boudicca, whose own command of the winds accelerates their escape. The tide turns to their advantage, propelling the party- and especially Catenna, with her massive makeshift flippers- toward what looks like some form of safety. "Seriously! I don't just go around ripping holes in my own torso just for the fun of it!"
It's not fun!
It's not fun at all!!!
"Almost there...!" And they are. They're within arm's reach, but it's then that Lucadia's manifestation finally fades back into the ley, freeing Evrae to continue its pursuit. It opens with a barrage of photonic projectiles, the prismatic spheres rushing through the water at incredible speeds. It's then that Clarine's own mastery of light becomes their salvation, deflecting the volley of shots before they can do any meaningful damage.
A moment later, Cyre and Catenna throw the switches. Evrae's terrifying double-hinged eel-jaw yawns open in a soundless scream as the sluice slams down in front of it, and the colossal unsent smashes its jaw into a plate of hardened steel...!
"I don't know how long that'll hold," Cyre says, already hurrying down the tunnel. "Come on, let's get as much distance from that thing as we can...!"
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>=============================== ===============<* CHALLENGE - Evrae Altana - Fight the Beast! *>================ |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This is an underwater challenge. If you are lucky, you have slammed the gate down in front of Evrae Altana's draconic face, and bought yourself a chance to attack it. Otherwise, it will be on you, and lay into you with fang -- and its eyes, which can cause flesh to turn to stone, until magic or time reverses such a thing. The creature is brutal in its assault, and at full strength, maybe too much. But it also is seeking specific targets. After a few exchanges of blows, Evrae Altana circles away -- and takes off through a narrower service tunnel. A gate slams closed behind it, as it hurries on to harry another. If you are not too wounded, you may be able to continue on, towards an escape. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Fright============================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
It is a close shave, in the end: they slide under the gate, and Cyre and Catenna throw the switches, cutting off pursuit from the horrible creature most handily. The whole of the Via Purifico seems to shake under its collision with the gate.
For a moment, it might seem as if they're home free.
But Evrae rears back and slams its head into the gate, again and again. Unsent, it will not stop--
And the gate is beginning to bend. Even if they're all able to swim as hard and as fast as they can, to the very ends of this labyrinth, could they, if it breaks through?
A decision point is made, at least on Avril's part. Turning in the water, she regards the beast as it slams that gate again, and raises a hand towards it.
"You will go no further," she informs it, as the gate buckles perilously, and into her hand there is now a javelin of perfect crystalline ice. This, she throws for Evrae as it rears back for another strike at the gate.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Fight the Beast!.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
It is entirely too close for comfort. Popping above the surface for just a second, Catenna sucks in a long breath.
By the time she's dipped back below the surface, the gate has begun to give way.
Avril attacks, and Catenna's not far behind her. Pivoting in the water, the Moon Shaman brushes her fingers over the surface of the Silver Medium buckled securely at her hip. A shimmer of energy dances along her fingertips before she levels both hands towards the immense sea serpent.
The force Catenna brings to bear is invisible, yet its effects are tangible. An immense feeling of growing weight and bulk will grip Evrae as Catenna fights to amplify the beast's gravity twice, thrice, four times. Her spells are more effective the larger a foe is, and Evrae is not only a large foe, she's a foe that needs to float somewhat in the water.
Her strategy is simple yet brutal: She's trying to make Evrae weigh so much that she just sinks to the bottom of the room.
DG: Catenna has used her Tool Celesdue Medium toward her party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Fight the Beast!.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
He might have a good reason but Boudicca still worries, Cyre!!
She at least doesn't beleaguer the point, though, because Evrae is come, and it broaches no banter.
No banter, and no barrier.
"Stay back!" Boudicca commands, as the air gusts against Evrae, a headwind to frustrate its movements. Her allies, again, will find convenient airpockets around their heads, so they are not trying to exert themselves in battle without being able to breathe.
The gate might not hold it, but if she can stop it from charging for long enough for her allies to attack...
DG: Seraph Boudicca has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Fight the Beast!.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
They have bought themselves precious time. But that time is vanishing before their very eyes as Evrae slams repeatedly into the gate. They need to make a choice - flee, or fight.
Avril elects to flee and Catenna joins her, so Clarine elects to do the same. At the moment, she is unsure that she can truly contribute when it comes to raw attack power... but there is something vital she can do.
"The wyrm's gaze is perilous... this shall keep you safe!" Clarine says. She brings out another Panacea Bottle. She unseals it, letting the bottle's contents filter out into the water around them. It's magical effects will hopefully linger long enough that, should Evrae manage to affix one of them with that petrifying gaze, the potion will take hold and cure the petrification before it progresses too far.
DG: Seraph Clarine has used her Tool Panacea Bottle toward her party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Fight the Beast!.
<Pose Tracker> Cyre H. Lorentz has posed.
Ugh, that giant sea snake isn't going to just let them go, is it? Cyre makes a sound of some mild consternation as one by one, the others turn to fight the gigantic undead beast. Is he so callow as to let them cover for his escape...?
Maybe once upon a time, he was. But now...
There's a flash of emerald light. Unfolding out of the body of a man is the living avatar of the wind. Fengalon manifests in flesh and ley, given form by the Nahual sworn to its service. The Wind Tiger Shintai surges forward, surrounded by a cascading halo of frothy bubbles like a living supercavitating torpedo. Cyre seems dedicated to picking up where Lucadia had left off...
To engage directly with Evrae directly, mano y mano, with claws and fangs that shred the spiritual just as easily as they tear through the physical...!
DG: Cyre H. Lorentz has used his Tool Gale Claw toward his party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Fight the Beast!.
===============================<* Via Purifico *>=============================== ===============<* CHALLENGE - Evrae Altana - Fight the Beast! *>================ |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- This is an underwater challenge. If you are lucky, you have slammed the gate down in front of Evrae Altana's draconic face, and bought yourself a chance to attack it. Otherwise, it will be on you, and lay into you with fang -- and its eyes, which can cause flesh to turn to stone, until magic or time reverses such a thing. The creature is brutal in its assault, and at full strength, maybe too much. But it also is seeking specific targets. After a few exchanges of blows, Evrae Altana circles away -- and takes off through a narrower service tunnel. A gate slams closed behind it, as it hurries on to harry another. If you are not too wounded, you may be able to continue on, towards an escape. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Fright============================================
==========================<* Via Purifico - Round 6 *>========================== =================< Results - Evrae Altana - Fight the Beast! >================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Clarine 74 --(12)--> 86 Pass Panacea Bottle 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyre H. Lorentz 74 --(12)--> 86 Pass Gale Claw 3 Combat Effects: Sacrifice and Embolde -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Avril Vent Fleur 74 --(15)--> 89 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seraph Boudicca 74 --(15)--> 89 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Catenna 74 --(12)--> 86 Pass Celesdue Medium 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Seraph Clarine 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Fright(2)|Injure(1)|Slow(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Seraph Clarine has successfully explored Via Purifico!
===============================<* Via Purifico *>=============================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - A Cache of X-Potions *>===================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- After Evrae Altana is forced backward, you find a place where you can climb out of the water. In a nook here, you find an ancient chest; the wooden is wet, but the chest is sealed, and a little work opens it. Inside, you find several X-Potions, which can offer you some healing for whatever is to come. Then, ahead, you see some daylight at the end of a tunnel -- and a promise of freedom. =Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
They have but a few moments to lay in against the beast, as it threatens to break through.
Avril's icey javelin does little more than graze it, but it buys a much-needed moment, as does Boudicca's headwinds, after which the rest of them, armed with the power of the Guardians in various forms and backed up by Clarine's bottle to shield against its terrible gaze, do what they can through the shattering gate.
But then, just when it seems that it will burst through and they will need to attend to it with vigor... it suddenly pulls back and glides off down a different channel, almost as if it spotted something else.
Or someone else.
"It... must be attacking someone else," Avril says, treading water. "...No. We must see ourselves to safety, first," she continues, shaking her head. "We are in no condition to fight it further, and we must escape from this place before it returns."
Before long, the water gives way to dry land, and what is resting there but a chest?
Packed full of X-Potions. Did someone leave this here for them, or has it been resting all this time for someone, someday, to escape Via Purifico?