2021-01-01: Critical Point

• Log: Critical Point
• Cast: Loren Voss, Lan Lilac
• Where: Shrine of the Light Trial
• Date: January 01, 2021
• Summary: Things come to a head between Loren and Lan... and end disasterously. Note: certain dig challenges were altered for the sake of the scene. Also mild interpersonal violence content warning.

---

DG: A party led by Loren Voss is now entering Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit).
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.

==============<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) *>==============
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Forty Meter Drop *>=======================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The original entrance to Hoel has long been covered by sand, and is deep
 underneath the desert. The new entrance, cut open by Cid's men, is on the
 roof of the place. This leads to a grand chamber at the center of the ruin:
 a massive, forty meter high chamber that looks down upon a circular mosaic
 of the Goddess Althena.

 The circular mosaic is divided into thirty-six sections, each depicting
 scenes from Althenan dogma circa a thousand years or more ago: the arrival
 of Althena's Fortress; the blessing of water, earth, and sky upon the Silver
 Star; the first Dragonmaster, leading Althena's Chosen to their waiting
 promised land; and the last, standing against the Magic Emperor. All of them
 are dim.

 There are dun gemstones scattered across the ceiling. If lit, they should
 shine down upon this mosaic and light it up. Doing so will unlock whatever
 is necessary to open the sealed door at the central north wall of the
 chamber. Numerous other doors lead off from it, like spokes from a wheel.

 However, first, you must enter -- and you are at the top of that forty foot
 ceiling, with no easy way down.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Secret=============================================

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    All in all, it comes down to the matter of a hole in the ground and the rumors that circulate about it regarding.

    Information often comes to Solaris later than other groups in the region, a function of their stretched resources and numbers in Spira. But that said, their mandate remains: breach the chamber of the Fayth in Macalania Temple. Ascertain the movements of certain individuals and the political lay of the land. And...

    Investigate ancient ruins and claim their contents for Solaris, if warranted. Of course when word had reached them about this particular ruin in Bikanel -- newly unearthed by the Al Bhed, it would seem and already explored by their new-found allies -- they had ended up particularly short-staffed.

    So his mission today is simple. Advance to the site and plant a drone once within, then retreat. They don't even have any of the grints to spare for a proper investigation, but they have someone who has enough technical knowhow to plant one these devices and enough sense to withdraw once the necessary business is concluded.

    Namely, they have Captain Loren Voss, who has nearly three years' experience in these matters.

    The captain in question gazes down into the hole in the roof of the shrine and has to take a step back. He felt far too faint and lightheaded for comfort's sake. Blinking, Loren shakes his head and takes a breath as if to steady himself. It hasn't just been here. He's been feeling increasingly... not great lately. It's to be expected: when he's cross-referenced his journals, he's been taken aback by how much he's lost. It's accelerating. And he's not going to be able to fake this much longer. He'll have to tell her soon--

    But for now, there's still a job to do.

    "Of course it couldn't be simple," he mutters, approaching the edge again. Setting down his pack, he frees the old grabbling line and harness, taking care to secure it near the lip of the hole. "I can't even drop it in here. It won't survive the fall." He tugs at the device around his wrist, a collection of looped wires as he regards again the void -- or rather very much the lack of one -- that yawns before him.

    It's not really a void if you can see the bottom of it.

    He takes a breath, threads Ether through the device. And then, closing his eyes, steps over the edge, one hand on his line and the other securing his pack.

    He hopes this works. Getting back out is going to be a pain in the ass.

DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Forty Meter Drop.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    In the end, it's better for Filgaia - and Spira too, come to think of it - if Solaris isn't allowed to fulfill its goals. Lan never got to know too many of them, the natural result of being somewhere between 'helpful idiot' and 'useful but expendable' in their ranks. Maybe that's a good thing, though; as much as they don't want her as a loose end now, if she knew anything really worth protecting Lan's life expectancy would have dropped severely.

    And now that she's hooked up with the Black Wolves and Gwen, Lan is starting to understand more. She's got a slightly better idea of what she can do. And while she's not exactly following Loren around, she's not going to let a coincidence slip through her fingers.

    Yeah, she just kind of happened to get to the Bikanel ruin shortly after Loren, and saw him go inside. Go serendipity?!

    And while she's here she can undo whatever he does to it, and make sure he's okay. Somehow, Lan doesn't think that his deteriorating mental condition is going to have improved over the few weeks since she last saw him. And she hopes she didn't really hurt his wrist too badly...

    Crouched down at the entrance, she watches him use the Ether tuner to help himself climb down. She waits a few moments, weaves a little magic through her hair ribbon, and floats down after him.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Forty Meter Drop.

==============<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) *>==============
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Forty Meter Drop *>=======================
|Type: Entry       |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The original entrance to Hoel has long been covered by sand, and is deep
 underneath the desert. The new entrance, cut open by Cid's men, is on the
 roof of the place. This leads to a grand chamber at the center of the ruin:
 a massive, forty meter high chamber that looks down upon a circular mosaic
 of the Goddess Althena.

 The circular mosaic is divided into thirty-six sections, each depicting
 scenes from Althenan dogma circa a thousand years or more ago: the arrival
 of Althena's Fortress; the blessing of water, earth, and sky upon the Silver
 Star; the first Dragonmaster, leading Althena's Chosen to their waiting
 promised land; and the last, standing against the Magic Emperor. All of them
 are dim.

 There are dun gemstones scattered across the ceiling. If lit, they should
 shine down upon this mosaic and light it up. Doing so will unlock whatever
 is necessary to open the sealed door at the central north wall of the
 chamber. Numerous other doors lead off from it, like spokes from a wheel.

 However, first, you must enter -- and you are at the top of that forty foot
 ceiling, with no easy way down.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Secret=============================================

=========<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) - Round 1 *>=========
=========================< Results - Forty Meter Drop >=========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          0 --(20)--> 20                 Fail
Ether Tuner                         1   Agility Effects: Quicken and Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           0 --(12)--> 12                 Pass
Butterfly Ribbon                    2   Agility Effects: Quicken
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  0 --(15)--> 15                 Fail
Conditions: Secret(2)|Slow(2)
Effects: Quicken(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================

DG: The party led by Loren Voss has failed this challenge! The party gained 15 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> Loren Voss has posed.

    He drops, the Ether barely lightening the load of his own body as he plummets downwards. At some point he lets go of the cord. It's at some point before he runs out of slack and comes to a jerking stop, hanging for a moment before he grabs onto the cord and stabilizes himself. "Shit," he exhales, seeing that there's still a ways to go before he can touch down. He contemplates for a moment untethering himself from the cord, dropping to the floor below and using Ether to absorb the impact, and then healing whatever comes of that. He's had worse.

    But something -- maybe it was a sound, though when he later, much later, looks back he won't remember anything giving her away -- prompts him to look upwards and he sees her, descending almost like an angel, aloft by the grace of her silver ribbon.

    "L... Lan?" he croaks, his throat gone suddenly dry. "What... you, did you--"

    And then into that moment, because Loren has the worst luck ever, the piece of rock to which the other end of the cord had been tethered decides to spontaneously shatter.

    He drops, indeed, like a stone. At least the flash of white suggests that he may have been able to conjure up something to absorb the impact at the end...

DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.

==============<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) *>==============
===================<* CHALLENGE - Magnifying Lens Scorcher *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The hallway that you enter has a large gem at the end of it. The hallway is
 much taller than some in here, and there is a glimmer of sunlight above. The
 glimmer of sunlight may well be impossible -- but somehow, much of Hoel is
 lit up despite being buried under a desert. There is, along the walls,
 parallel metal tracks.

 Mounted between them is a massive lens, which distorts the glass ceiling
 that shows the bright sky outside. More than that, though, the lens is able
 to swivel and turn on two ball turrets. The reason becomes clear, as it
 activates on its own -- and turns, catching a sun beam, and magnifies it.

 That sun beam begins scorching the floor, moving straight towards you. If
 you can dodge past and touch the purple gemstone at the end of the hallway,
 you will light one of the mosaic segments in the central chamber. Doing so
 without burning burnt is the challenge.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure=============================================

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    If she was going to do this without being spotted, she really should have waited more than 'thirty seconds, at best'. One day Lan will be a super skilled secret agent. Today is not that day.

    He looks at her. She looks at him. He looks at her. She looks at him--
    And the wall decides to interject. Gravity does the rest. "Loren!" He drops, and she follows, loosing her ribbon's grip on gravity to run down the side of the pit. She's going way too fast-- she's not going to make it in time--!

    Lan kicks off of the wall and lands in a staggering half-run, the shock echoing up her legs as she scrambles toward where Loren fell. Briefly, she notes some kind of crystal and mirror setup - oh it's going to be one of those ruins - before a laser starts burning a path toward them both. "--Come on," she urges him, and tries to scoop him up with an arm around his waist and his arm over her shoulders.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Butterfly Ribbon toward her party's challenge, Magnifying Lens Scorcher.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    He should have hit the mosaic's face below. But it's not where he lands. There is

    a gap

    in his memory.

    Lan will see differently: he gets up as if the rest of that drop -- even taking into account his shield -- and shrugs off his pack, leaving it there in the middle of the mosaic. And then he walks into one of those hallways, as if he had somehow clipped her shout and her presence from his mind.

    Until a close beam from that laser serves to take him right off his feet. Lan's close on his heels.

    He blinks as if awakening from some dream, resolving her face and her her slowly and stands as she tries to steer him.

    His arm snakes about her in response, Ether thrumming through the Tuner on that wrist.

    "Come back with me," he tells her, as the laser beam inches close to the both of them. Does he seriously not know where they are or what sort of danger they're both in right now--?

    "You need to," he repeats, trying to steer her in kind, "come back."

DG: Loren Voss has used his Tool Ether Tuner toward his party's challenge, Magnifying Lens Scorcher.

==============<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) *>==============
===================<* CHALLENGE - Magnifying Lens Scorcher *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility   |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The hallway that you enter has a large gem at the end of it. The hallway is
 much taller than some in here, and there is a glimmer of sunlight above. The
 glimmer of sunlight may well be impossible -- but somehow, much of Hoel is
 lit up despite being buried under a desert. There is, along the walls,
 parallel metal tracks.

 Mounted between them is a massive lens, which distorts the glass ceiling
 that shows the bright sky outside. More than that, though, the lens is able
 to swivel and turn on two ball turrets. The reason becomes clear, as it
 activates on its own -- and turns, catching a sun beam, and magnifies it.

 That sun beam begins scorching the floor, moving straight towards you. If
 you can dodge past and touch the purple gemstone at the end of the hallway,
 you will light one of the mosaic segments in the central chamber. Doing so
 without burning burnt is the challenge.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure=============================================

=========<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) - Round 2 *>=========
=====================< Results - Magnifying Lens Scorcher >=====================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          20 --(5)--> 25                 Pass
Ether Tuner                         1   Agility Effects: Quicken and Rally
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           12 --(5)--> 17                 Pass
Butterfly Ribbon                    2   Agility Effects: Quicken
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  15 --(30)--> 45                Pass
Conditions: Injure(2)|Secret(1)|Slow(2)
Effects: Quicken(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================

DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 30 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    Huh, where's he--? "Loren!" she calls after him. Where was he going? He walked right into that laser beam--

    At least he's easy enough to haul up and get moving again, and he's not unconscious. Lan could carry him out on her own, but she'd have to use every last bit of her endurance to do so. At least if he's moving on his own, they've got a better chance of- of-

    He snakes an arm around her waist and pulls, steering her in another direction. Come back, he says. She needs to come back.

    "I already told you," Lan begins to explain, before taking a deep breath. With a burst of effort, she straightens up and uses all her strength to pick him up off of his feet, her scant few inches on him just enough to get his feet off of the ground. Then she powerwalks them to the crystal and past it. "Now really isn't the time, okay?!"

DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.

==============<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) *>==============
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Let the Light In *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The hallway that you choose to enter is shorter than some in this place.
 Nothing harries you on the way to the end of it, but the problem that
 presents itself is immediately clear. The wall at the end seems unfinished;
 instead of worked stone, it is unworked rock, raw and uneven. There are a
 few cracks, which lets the glimmer of the bright blue gem inside be seen.

 If you can manage to touch it, you can light one of the mosaic segments in
 the central chamber. However, doing so will require breaking through the
 stone and getting it off it. Doing so will require that you carefully break
 the rock away... and not damage the gemstone inside, instead letting the
 light touch it.

 The hallway, at least, is brilliantly lit. Like so much of Hoel, the source
 of the light is unknown, as the place is buried under the sands of Bikanel.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Tire=============================================

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    He's acting funny.

    He's been acting funny. Lan of course knows why -- or can guess the reason. He had already been notably in poor condition after their last ill-fated encounter, but to think that it's already gotten this bad...

    "What are you-- stop it!"

    Unceremoniously, she's hauled him off his feet (has he lost weight? he feels lighter) and similarly hauls off towards the crystal, the laser again missing the both of them.

    He struggles free from her after a moment of this, once she's slapped the crystal and set it to shining. "You... what are you..." He sways. Staggering over, he latches onto the doorframe and He leans against it for a long moment, as if he were trying to stay on his feet.

    It's...
    There was something he needed from her. It makes him feel ill to even think about it. But now that she's here...

    Now that she's here.

    He pushes off the doorframe, shaking his head as if to similarly sweep those feelings aside. "...Why are you here?" His hand touches to his shoulder. Where's his pack? He had had it when he came in. Now it's gone?

    He seems more lucid -- by degrees -- than before. But as Lan may know, it's a fleeting thing.

    Particularly when he reaches over and slides free the blade at his hip. "...You're... I need to take you back. I can't let you escape again," he says to her as he steps back -- almost as if to give her space to come for him (where is there to go behind but the lasers) and into the hallway beyond.

    It's well-lit in here. Surprisingly so. The wall to one side is unfinished, but something shimmers into its heart. Loren steps close to it, as if unaware that it exists.

DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Let the Light In.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    He pulls free of her grip and Lan lets him go once they're out of immediate danger. ...He's bad, she realizes, watching him stumble and lean against the doorframe. Not just that, he's gotten noticeably worse since they last saw each other.

    "Loren, you..." Lan trails off, watching him search for something (maybe the pack he threw down?) and then pull free his sword. "You're not listening to me! I said I won't go back! You know why I won't!" Or at least he knew. Now... who can say how much he remembers at all?

    The glint of blue inside the rock wall behind him catches her eye. He backs up, as if he's expecting her to charge. Lan... very determinedly walks towards him and shifts her weight onto one leg so she can pivot and slam her sandaled foot into the crumbling rock face. "Put that away! I know you're confused," and her expression softens a little bit, "but you're not going to take me back. We're going to get out of here and then if you're still being a butt we're going to go our seperate ways again!"

    At least he probably can't do too much damage to the ruins without his pack, right...?

DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Let the Light In.

==============<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) *>==============
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Let the Light In *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute     |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The hallway that you choose to enter is shorter than some in this place.
 Nothing harries you on the way to the end of it, but the problem that
 presents itself is immediately clear. The wall at the end seems unfinished;
 instead of worked stone, it is unworked rock, raw and uneven. There are a
 few cracks, which lets the glimmer of the bright blue gem inside be seen.

 If you can manage to touch it, you can light one of the mosaic segments in
 the central chamber. However, doing so will require breaking through the
 stone and getting it off it. Doing so will require that you carefully break
 the rock away... and not damage the gemstone inside, instead letting the
 light touch it.

 The hallway, at least, is brilliantly lit. Like so much of Hoel, the source
 of the light is unknown, as the place is buried under the sands of Bikanel.
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Tire=============================================

=========<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) - Round 3 *>=========
=========================< Results - Let the Light In >=========================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          25 --(28)--> 53                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           17 --(28)--> 45                Fail
Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  45 --(15)--> 60                Fail
Conditions: Injure(1)|Slow(1)|Tire(2)|Weaken(2)
Effects:
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================

DG: The party led by Loren Voss has failed this challenge! The party gained 15 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> Loren Voss has posed.

    At one point he knew. Does he still know?

    Or... is it possible that he knows now and just doesn't care?

    He continues to back up, inching away from her as if he were -- just maybe -- uncertain that he wants to commit to this. Or perhaps he's simply letting her enter into a place where he has more room to maneuver than the small section on the end of a hallway filled with mirrors and a laser. Or maybe logic doesn't enter into it at all.

    His memories are slipping away from him. When so much context is lost, is what remains even remotely sensible or logical?

    "What you want matters?" he asks, even tilting his head to one side as if this were a novel concept. Loren shakes his head. "But you're just a Lamb."

    She pivots suddenly, slamming a foot into the rock face; sheets of rock fall free to shatter upon the floor, revealing the suddently brilliantly shining gemstome.

    He takes a sharp step backwards, blade bared in a defensive position, as if he were expecting her to have a go at him as the rock wall collapses.

    'Put that away!'

    The hand holding the blade shakes. He grits his teeth; his whole body is strung taut with it.

    He's furious.

    '...we're going to go our separate ways again!'

    No, not even something as primal as fury. For an instant he looks haunted.
    Something about her presence makes it worse. It makes it harder to assemble the ragged patches of what remains of him. It makes it harder to pretend that he's still Loren. Every time the pieces fall away faster than he can hope to patch them. Is it because she carries his memories for him? Or--

    He lunges for her, blade in hand.

    "If you won't come back-- you can stay here instead--!"

DG: Lan Lilac has drawn a new Challenge.

==============<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) *>==============
====================<* CHALLENGE - Peer Through the Mists *>====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The hallway you enter is much wider than any other in this place. You enter
 to find a small platform, with a rail on it, and a small crossbow mounted on
 a turret. A few bolts are stationed nearby; loading the crossbow up is
 easily done. The crossbow bolts are blunted.

 On two turrets nearby are small reflectors, which catch sunbeams shining on
 them, and then shine a spotlight out. When you enter, you see a bright red
 gemstone glittering on it. Hit it with a crossbow bolt and you will light
 one of the mosaic segments in the central chamber. However, the red
 gemstone's casing moves suddenly on a track built into the wall.

 Then, the room begins to flood with a thick white mist. The only thing that
 lets you see through the mist is the sunbeams from the reflectors. You need
 to find the moving gem -- then strike it with a crossbow to activate it.
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure, Injure=========================================

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    But you're just a Lamb. No matter how many times he says that word, it's never with anything less than utter dismissal - or worse, outright disgust. It probably wouldn't sting as badly if anybody else from Solaris had said it, but even after all this time...!

    Even now, somehow she feels sorry for him. But not enough to let this go on any longer.

    The look of determination on her face gives way to a strange mix of sorrow and derision. Even as he threatens her. Even as he lunges, blade in hand. He really has...

    Her body moves without being told. He overextends and Lan grabs his empty hand, pivots once more, and redirects his momentum towards the wall, letting him slam himself against it face-first. With luck, he'll drop his sword--

    The ink sleeping underneath her skin stirs. No, she thinks quickly. No, I don't need it--

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    He's improved greatly since he started learning the blade. But the fact is both that he's not a rank amateur and that he has a mere two years if that in learning the sword arts that he hadn't been able to study in Jugend. He lacks the advantage of the master or the beginner.

    And in this state, this fell mood that has overtaken him, he's prone to error more than before.

    See, now, how he overextends as he lunges for her--

    The sword, as she'd hoped, scatters from his grip soon after she sends him crashing into the wall. He rises after a moment, and perhaps Lan might have a moment's worth of hope when he sways as if he were about to collapse.

    But Loren doesn't topple over. Instead he takes all of one step forward and

    And that's when, as Lan ducks out of the way, she'll feel the weight of something rush past her.

    It's several tons of rock. The wall it rams into splinters, cracks, falls in a rain of stone.
    He's really trying to kill her now.

    Behind her the wall shudders and half-falls alongside the earthen ram he had tried to crush her with. Within is thick with white fog, which comes billowing out in long tendrils. There's a way forward for her, if she'll have it. A place where she just might be able to hide from him.
    And within the fog, something glints and glitters. The crossbows may be beyond her or him right now, but there may be another way to light a gemstone that hides in the mist.

    If she goes, Loren goes after her, blade abandoned in the rubble of that hallway.

    The worst part of all might be that he doesn't say a word as he hunts for her, not even to yell or scream at her.

DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Peer Through the Mists.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    That's got to be it, right? He hit the wall hard - she's sure of it - surely he'll come back to his senses, or pass out or something. She can carry him as a last resort--

    Again her body moves without being told, this time to keep from being crushed by rocks falling sideways. No, no, not falling...

    She dives after it, scrambling over fallen stone and through the brand new hole in the wall. She can hide in here, regroup for a moment, even as he stalks after her wordlessly. She ought to be scared, shouldn't she? Someone she's known for so long, become something like this?

    He's a monster now. Maybe he always was. Maybe this was what lay beneath the entire time.

    Maybe she's been a desperate fool this entire time.

    Hiding below the edge of the platform, Lan listens for his footsteps and squints through the fog, toward the rail. She can't use the crossbow from here but if she can just... She counts out the gem's route around the room with the same chant that she uses with her oracle paper. Eenie, meenie, minie...

    And once she's fairly sure she's got the timing down, Lan extends an arm to point straight ahead. A pencil-thin beam of starlight cuts through the mist.

DG: Lan Lilac has used her Tool Paku-Paku toward her party's challenge, Peer Through the Mists.

==============<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) *>==============
====================<* CHALLENGE - Peer Through the Mists *>====================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 2          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The hallway you enter is much wider than any other in this place. You enter
 to find a small platform, with a rail on it, and a small crossbow mounted on
 a turret. A few bolts are stationed nearby; loading the crossbow up is
 easily done. The crossbow bolts are blunted.

 On two turrets nearby are small reflectors, which catch sunbeams shining on
 them, and then shine a spotlight out. When you enter, you see a bright red
 gemstone glittering on it. Hit it with a crossbow bolt and you will light
 one of the mosaic segments in the central chamber. However, the red
 gemstone's casing moves suddenly on a track built into the wall.

 Then, the room begins to flood with a thick white mist. The only thing that
 lets you see through the mist is the sunbeams from the reflectors. You need
 to find the moving gem -- then strike it with a crossbow to activate it.
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure, Injure=========================================

=========<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) - Round 4 *>=========
======================< Results - Peer Through the Mists >======================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          53 --(21)--> 74                Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           45 --(8)--> 53                 Pass
Paku-Paku                           2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  60 --(25)--> 85                Pass
Conditions: Injure(2)|Tire(1)|Treasure(1)|Weaken(1)
Effects: Enlighten(1)
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================

DG: The party led by Loren Voss has passed this challenge! The party gained 25 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> Loren Voss has posed.

    The only saving grace is that as unhinged and dangerous as he's become, his abilities to reason and rationalize his way through situations like this have been similarly affected. Once, perhaps, this would have been a far more risky endeavor.

    She passes through the gap in the wall and he follows, wandering seemingly aimlessly through the fog. He doesn't call out her name even once.
    But it's still easy -- maybe frightfully easy -- for her to keep ahead and away from him. He doesn't see her. He doesn't see that thin beam of starlight that illuminates the gem.

    The door opens at the other end; more of the mists pour out of the room, thinning. But they already had been -- rather than a sudden end to her ability to hide, another exit is afforded to her.

    It's an exit that takes her back out to that central room, to the mosaic where his pack still lies. Sunlight pours in through a hole in the ceiling.

    And there are now lights illuminating each section of the mosaic clearly. It was of the Goddess Althena, once -- Lan might remember her from her time on the other side of Lunar. The borders describe various scenes from the legends about the goddess.

    Nothing else is here, save for a shimmering staircase rising to some point further in the shrine.

    Lan, though, may not have long to take this into account. Loren emerges from that hallway, white mists curling in behind him. He looks at her -- or rather, through her.

    "I... should have done this before," he says, moving again as if in a fugue, "When I see you, I... but you have my memories, right? You can't keep those..."

DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.

==============<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) *>==============
=================<* CHALLENGE - Octavio - The Steps of Faith *>=================
|Type: Climax      |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Custom.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Tire============================================

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    As his footsteps move away from her, Lan risks peeking over the edge of the platform. He's not moving like normal - not a normal Loren, not a normal human. She thinks of a sick animal, and wonders if this is how he'll be forever now.

    Even if she could perform that ceremony they'd researched so long ago, there's no way to get him to hold still for it, is there?!

    The wall opens, and she runs out into the light.

    It's not fair.

    Color and sunlight washes down over her, scenes of someone else's deity lit from behind far overhead. If she had the time to admire it...

    It isn't fair!

    First the Stranger, and then Solaris, and even now he just...! Her hands tighten into fists. Don't think about it. Not here. Not now. She's going to live. She's going to live and she's going to save Loren-- the world-- herself--

    It's not fair! It's not fair!!

    Black crawls over her skin from the places where her fingernails bite into her palms. It's not fair! It's not FAIR! She never asked for this! All she wanted to do was--!

    He's going to kill her. He's going to kill her and he doesn't even know what he's doing.

    Lan moves without thinking, without intent. Only the raw urge to survive, to win so she can live one more day. She crashes into him like a meteor, knocking Loren down and rolling with him across the floor, to wind up on top of him with her hands around his neck. "I-- I--!"

    The black ribbons wind up her arms, wraps around her fingers. They crawl, seeking purchase, seeking to encase her. They carress his jaw and cheeks, climb the topography of his nose, lick at the corners of his mouth. And above him, Lan stares down, horrified. "Loren-- no--"

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    What was he trying to do?

    Even if it had been possible to somehow stop him and ask him, he wouldn't have been able to give a coherent answer. To kill her, to take back his memories, to take her with him, to...

    But he doesn't know what he wants like this, does he? He knows what he thinks he might want, and these impulses run over him like an out-of-control wire, the current sparking and flowing to nowhere but thin air.

    Even so, though, unless Lan can escape him here... he really will kill her.
    He might not even remember doing it.

    Lan, though

    doesn't escape him.

    She crashes into him, slamming the unhinged young man down onto the mosaic floor. The fact that he lets out a sharp grunt of pain as he slams hard against the floor might be a relief -- maybe someone's still left in there. Maybe there's something left that she can...

    Her hands find his throat. He reaches up to try and peel them away, but there are black tendrils -- ribbons -- winding around him and curling up about his face and it feels like they're

    trying to

    He struggles against them in the same way a bug might struggle in the spider's web. There is no force in it. There can't be, anymore. The denial is purely psychic.

DG: Loren Voss has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Octavio - The Steps of Faith.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    A hundred hands plastering to his skin, holding him tight, dragging him underwater.

    A ruined sky and an upside-down world.

    Endless loneliness, a strange bright prison made of white plastic and silver metal, with Filagaia floating high above.

    Unseen hands again, curved around limbs, holding him against a table. He is not alone. It hurts.

    A piece of him is removed with delicate, almost loving care. It hurts. Something cool like ceramic is fitted into its place with the same attention to detail. It hurts It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.

    A cool hand smoothes across his feverish forehead. The Stranger's eyes are blue, and his lips move without sound.

    Pieces of him lie all around, broken and discarded on a creator's workbench. The hands still hold, still cling and carress. It hurts a little less, now.

    Above him, Lan's eyes are wide, the whites visible all the way around her pale irises. "N- nuh- no--"

    She'd said she'd hold his memories for him. it had been the only comfort she could give. She didn't think it would mean anything - nothing profound, just that she would remember when he couldn't anymore.

    it hurts

    This is-- it wasn't supposed to--

    With an anguished cry, Lan rips herself away from Loren and drags herself across the floor, trailing black tatters behind her. "No, no, no..."

DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Octavio - The Steps of Faith.

==============<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) *>==============
=================<* CHALLENGE - Octavio - The Steps of Faith *>=================
|Type: Climax      |Dungeon Ability: Wits      |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Custom.
=Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Tire============================================

=========<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) - Round 5 *>=========
===================< Results - Octavio - The Steps of Faith >===================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          74 --(28)--> 102               Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           53 --(28)--> 81                Fail
Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  85 --(0)--> 85                 Fail
Conditions: Injure(1)|Stupify(2)|Tire(2)
Effects:
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================

DG: Loren Voss is too exhausted to continue!
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has failed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party
management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
DG: Loren Voss has drawn a new Challenge.

==============<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) *>==============
====================<* CHALLENGE - Octavio - Shining Bind *>====================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Custom.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    He

    drowns.

    No. A drowning would have been a mercy.

    There are hands -- an impossible number of hands. They hold him down. They so gently soothe him. They take him apart.

    Those blue eyes.

    He's always been drawn to people's hands. He's never been able to exactly articulate why. Something about their strength and fragility, maybe. Or the way in which hands said so much about a person. Or--

    He is in pieces. He would scream, if there was anything left to make a sound. Not everything that's been taken away is put back or replaced. Some of it lies discarded.

    put it back give it back it's mine please no you can't I don't want

    His own gaze is a sightless one, his blue eyes wide and empty as she screams above him.

    Little by little, it hurts less.

    Little by little.
        inches by inches. his grip weakens.

    And little by little
        he releases his grip on his world, his reality, his everything.
    And sinks away.

    He lies there on the floor for a long long while after she's ripped away from him, trailing those black ribbons. Only the rise and fall of his chest betrays the fact that he still lives.

    Maybe he'll stir before she attempts or dares to check on him. Maybe it'll be after.

    He pushes himself up off the floor slowly when he does finally rouse, staring at his hands, at his body as if he'd never seen them before. Briefly he touches a hand to his throat -- it hurts? -- only to pull it away.

    He stares at his hand after for a long moment, after which his gaze settles on her. It's clear at a glance: he has no idea who she is.

    Indeed, it doesn't even remain on her long and moves instead to take in the whole of the space in which they are now. He's silent, lips parted: some wordless panic has begin to bubble up within. Where is he? Who is she?
    ...Who is he?

    Not for the first time since he came here does Loren visibly reel. It's just that this time...

    ...this time, he actually does faint.

DG: Lan Lilac has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Octavio - Shining Bind.

==============<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) *>==============
====================<* CHALLENGE - Octavio - Shining Bind *>====================
|Type: Final       |Dungeon Ability: Combat    |Challenge Rating: 3          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 Custom.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================

=========<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) - Round 6 *>=========
======================< Results - Octavio - Shining Bind >======================
Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loren Voss                          102 --(X)--> X
                                                Effects:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lan Lilac                           81 --(101)--> 182              Fail
Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC
-----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
Leader: Loren Voss                  85 --(15)--> 100               Fail
Conditions: Stupify(1)|Tire(1)|Wound(2)
Effects:
===============================< Dream Chasers >================================

DG: Lan Lilac is too exhausted to continue!
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
DG: The party led by Loren Voss has successfully explored Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit)!

==============<* Hoel - Shrine of the Light Trial (First Visit) *>==============
===================<* CHALLENGE - Putting the Dead to Rest *>===================
|Type: Discovery   |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1          |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
 The final blow drives Octavio to his knees. He hits the ground, skidding
 backward. His great sword is driven point first into the stone, and leaves a
 divot carved into the ground where Octavio struck it to the flagstones. He
 looks up, and his form flickers -- pyreflies visible instead of the person
 -- and then he resumes his black-haired, blue and white uniform again.

 Octavio nods, once. Respectfully. "You fight well... do not lose sight of
 who you are. Of what you can accept. Of what paths you can walk. Stay with
 the light--and not the darkened ways, that seem easier, but only lead to
 worse."

 He smiles once. "Thank you. May she rest, now."

 His eyes close -- and then he bursts apart into so many pyreflies. They waft
 away from him, then. The Elw Teleporter's crystal awaits; with but a touch,
 it comes alive, with a hum. The four blue pillars shudder, as it comes
 online in other rooms.

 OOC: If you have the Blessing of Althena and Black Magic, as well as the
 Light elemental, you may now use the Diaga spell or a similar offensive
 Light magic. You also feel that you spirit is strengthened against
 Malevolence and Malevolent Domains.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wonder===================================================

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

She didn't mean to. She didn't mean to. She never meant for it to happen. She didn't think anything like that ever could happen. How could she have known?!

    The memories... the ones she'd tried so hard not to ever, ever think about. Not the ones she'd said she would 'hold on to' for him. Her own... the ones from when the Stranger made her his own thing. They're all flooding back now, and even the binding squeeze of the black ribbons around her fingers is fading into the memory of ash slipping between them.

    Lan chokes on a scream and curls up on the floor, and doesn't move for a long time.

    Later, when she's stopped crying and she's sure she's gotten herself back under control, she pulls herself back up. There's still a raw ache in her chest, and she wishes Ashansi were here for real, to tell her it's going to be okay. To save her, maybe.

    Underground, alone with what remains of another friend of hers, Lan has never felt more alone in her entire life.