View source for 2023-06-20: The Hunt for Kaguya

*'''Log: The Hunt for Kaguya, Part 1'''
*'''Cast:''' [[Character :: Amaterasu]], [[Character :: Ratatoskr]], [[Character :: Hannah Curie]], [[Character :: Holly]]
*'''Where:''' Deku Isles
*'''Date:''' June 20, 2023
*'''Summary''': ''Kaguya has vanished off of the Veruni radar. Amaterasu, begging special permission, has set out to find her and what has caused her uncharacteristic silence -- which means that she has begun to delve into some unusual places. Very unusual, as the Spitsbergen Nightmare goes.''

----

 DG: A party led by Amaterasu is now entering The Spitsbergen Nightmare.
 DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.

 ========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
 =======================<* CHALLENGE - How Inconvenient *>=======================
 | Type: Entry        | Dungeon Ability: Brute           | Challenge Rating: 3  |
 ---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
   Finding where the Nightmare is supposed to be is the tricky part. Rumor has   
   it that it wanders. Rumor has it that it is never in the precisely the same   
   place twice. Are either of these statements even true? That, unfortunately,   
   isn't something anyone who has heard of the Nightmare can tell you.           
                                                                                 
   But you find it, however you manage it -- a hole in the earth, streaming      
   with strange mists in some odd and possibly unexpected corner of Southern     
   Aquvy. Or perhaps the more accurate statement would be this: finding it is    
   the tricky part. Removing the overly large boulder that is taking up most of  
   the entrance to the nightmare is the /hard part/.                             
                                                                                 
   But if you want to explore the Nightmare -- whatever it might be, beyond      
   that inconvenient barrier -- you'll have to remove it in some fashion.        
                                                                                 
   BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1IAKyY4kl4                              
 ============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
 |                             Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!                             |
 = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================

 <Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
<poem>
    There has been not a word from her sister in some time now.

    Generally speaking, this is not unusual as such. Kaguya often does not report in for weeks at a time -- even months. But soon two months silence turned into three, and then...
    And then, that was when Amaterasu had begun to grow concerned. She had begged relief from her immediate duties -- stating that confirming the status of their own was of great important to their cause in any regard -- and had set off into the wilds of Filgaia.

    There had been, of course, no sign of her sister in the ruins of Harmonde. Amaterasu had expected as much: there was no reason for Kaguya to remain there. So she had followed up on this and that, she had begun her long and steady search, and then...

    Then she had heard of it. An anomaly. Would this have been something of interest to her sister? Kaguya had last been involved in the matter of that terraforming device -- perhaps this was related to it. So she had set out to find 'the Nightmare'.

    She regards it where it lies in the earth, nonplussed. It doesn't seem very anomalous at all, except for the part where she has never seen gases of such color. Or of so ''many'' colors.

    It would seem that the first order of business is to get the rock moved aside. Touching her left hand to her armor's chestplate, she activates its auxilary shielding, adding rigidity and support to her forearms and hands. Then, twirling her polearm overhead, she then jams the butt of Valkyrja towards the obstinant obstruction. "Ha--!"
</poem>

 DG: Amaterasu has used her Tool Shielding Module toward her party's challenge, How Inconvenient. Resilient! Party
 shielded from some exhaustion next round!

 <Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
<poem>    "Well that tears it...!" Comes an obnoxious voice, identifiably male, of someone between nineteen and twenty-five years of age. Which is followed by the appearance of a tall, lanky Hyadean in blood red battle armor and a cloth apron, carrying a bag with them.
 
     "...They place an order... and this is where they go before it can go to them? They place an order and this is where they go before it can go to them!" Ratatoskr's forever-grin lessens to a smile. "Come on...!"
 
     Let us not think about these following facts: he's currently working for a cafe over in the Meria area, and how long it would take to bring this out into the middle of nowhere. Even accounting for how Ratatoskr just might boast the greatest potential land speed of almost anyone in the general Drifter community (and then some). It's mind-bogglingly nonsensical.
 
     That's not even scratching the surface of what's going on here.
 
     Ratatoskr considers Amaterasu and the others, looks at the rock with all of the funny gasses, and...
 
     "...I never did think to ask how far out we're supposed to deliver..." This moment of clarity is all that's left of reason before Ratatoskr draws himself a gunblade-like ARM of old make, wedges it in there alongside Valkyrja, and activates its barrier function to try and pry the thing aside.
 
     ...
 
     Well, he's along for the ride then, uninvited and uncaring of who or what's along for the ride with them.
</poem>

 DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Derelict Relic toward his party's challenge, How Inconvenient. Stalwart! Party shielded
 from some Exhaustion this round!

 <Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
<poem>
Hannah has had a hard time staying in one place for some time now. She travelled constantly, constantly taking on jobs to feed her research (and to send back home), but the ''other'' part of her wanderlust was chasing down rumors of odd happenings and events. PArtly out of a curiosity, but also partly on the off chance she might discover something that could help with her condition. She'd tried all of the ''conventional'' sources of inspiration, so all that was left...

A red-tailed hawk circles a few times high overhead before descending to settle on a tree branch and watch the goings-on curiously. Some distance away, Hannah blinks.

What's he doing here?

She comes trekking along in short order--not adorned in armor like the others, but dressed rather more for trekking in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, and ordinary hiking boots. She has a satchel and a rifle slung behind her.

"Hmm. I suppose you're searching for this Nightmare too?" She says that to Amaterasu, but not to Ratatoskr. To him she says, "... I didn't know restaurants delivered this far out. Is that food still warm?"

She briefly considers magic, but... the others are too close. Instead, she picks up a petrified tree branch and jams it under the boulder, adding her might to the others' efforts.
</poem>

 DG: Hannah Curie has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, How Inconvenient. 

 <Pose Tracker> Holly has posed.
<poem>As much as she wants to save the knowledge, natural curiousity and the desire to you know, not actually go back to where she's spent far too much time locked away. There's a voice in the back of her head telling her 'Strange things afoot in a labrynth' isn't any better and she almost agrees with it. Then doesn't agree with it. Then she decides she's going anyway because she can't not know what's going on with that kind of rumor. 
 
 Which means she didn't prepare in the slightest. No friends called (Though someone has shown up.) no plans sorted out. No investigation. She's also still wearing a book. This is short sighted. 
 
 A tiny hand goes up and she waves to Hannah and gives the unfamiliar faces a critical look. From on high. Bobbing there in the air. Back and forth. Watching them work on the large boulder. She's not here to criticize. This 100% would have cold stopped her and probably resulted in some grafitti to show her annoyance with the blockage. 
 
 Instead she actually floats down towards it and tries to find the best place to fulcrum something. 
 
 She's not even a foot tall. At least it's not just cheer leading alright! 
 
 We won't get into the fact that her curiosity has once again lead to her ignoring things like risk assessment though!
</poem>

 DG: Holly has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, How Inconvenient. 

 ========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
 =======================<* CHALLENGE - How Inconvenient *>=======================
 | Type: Entry        | Dungeon Ability: Brute           | Challenge Rating: 3  |
 ---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
   Finding where the Nightmare is supposed to be is the tricky part. Rumor has   
   it that it wanders. Rumor has it that it is never in the precisely the same   
   place twice. Are either of these statements even true? That, unfortunately,   
   isn't something anyone who has heard of the Nightmare can tell you.           
                                                                                 
   But you find it, however you manage it -- a hole in the earth, streaming      
   with strange mists in some odd and possibly unexpected corner of Southern     
   Aquvy. Or perhaps the more accurate statement would be this: finding it is    
   the tricky part. Removing the overly large boulder that is taking up most of  
   the entrance to the nightmare is the /hard part/.                             
                                                                                 
   But if you want to explore the Nightmare -- whatever it might be, beyond      
   that inconvenient barrier -- you'll have to remove it in some fashion.        
                                                                                 
   BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1IAKyY4kl4                              
 ============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
 |             Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down! and Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!             |
 = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================

 ===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 1 *>====================
 =========================< Results - How Inconvenient >=========================
 Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Amaterasu                           0 --(15)--> 15                 Pass
 Shielding Module                    2   Brute   Effects: Resilient            
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Ratatoskr                           0 --(10)--> 10                 Pass
 Derelict Relic                      2   Brute   Effects: Stalwart             
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Hannah Curie                        0 --(27)--> 27                 Fail
 Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC                
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Holly                               0 --(27)--> 27                 Fail
 Force                               0   Brute   Effects: BASIC                
 -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
 Leader: Amaterasu                   0 --(15)--> 15                 Fail
 Conditions: Tire(2)
 Effects: Resilient(1)
 ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================

 DG: The party led by Amaterasu 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> Amaterasu has posed.
<poem>
    The butt of the polearm strikes the rock once; it cracks, but hardly enough to shatter it thoroughly. Hardly that! Amaterasu frowns, contemplatively. Into this moment, there comes a voice and not terribly far at hand--

    Or unfamiliar to her.

    Slowly, she turns her head.

    "...Rata... toskr," she says after a moment, pausing midway as if to recall how the name concluded. Stepping away from the rock, she turns to face him, taking him in -- all of him.

    Including the garb which he now wears.

    "...So this is to be the place of our battle," she concludes, narrowing her eyes. "I see you, too, have joined their order. This shall be a worthy challenge!"

    Their what?

    Valkyrja comes alive with light, its blade-edge sizzling even as Ratatoskr approaches the still-stuck rock and jams a blade to try and pry the rock loose. It shifts slightly, in its niche. Neither is he the only to make the attempt as first a young woman makes her own approach as does one of the faeform creatures native to this planet. The rock shifts more, sending plumes of mist up from the depths.

    "Aye, but I have more pressing matters at hand," she tells Hannah. "--Leave the matter alone," Amaterasu speaks, shaking her head at her would-be opponent. "Come, Ratatoskr! Let us settle this!" She takes up a battle-ready stance here atop the mysteries of the Nightmare when there is a rumbling from below. "A quake? Here?! This--"

    Whatever else Amaterasu might had said is lost when the rock beneath their feet turns to clay, to dust, to nothingness and they are sent plummeting below into the dark twists and turns of the Nightmare.
</poem>

 DG: Hannah Curie has drawn a new Challenge.

 ========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
 ===================<* CHALLENGE - Death By A Thousand Cuts *>===================
 | Type: Exploration  | Dungeon Ability: Combat          | Challenge Rating: 3  |
 ---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
   It could be any dungeon passageway in any ruin you so choose. Except, this    
   is the Nightmare, so it's hardly 'any dungeon'.                               
                                                                                 
   Neither is the threat that's soon upon you: small (read: roughly rat-sized)   
   shape-changing set upon you en masse, shifting their appearance wildly as     
   they go on the attack.                                                        
                                                                                 
   Handling this many opponents may be difficult, but you've no other choice!    
 ============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
 |     Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, and     |
 |                             Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!                             |
 = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================

 <Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
<poem>
Hannah pauses as Amaterasu seems to have a score to settle with Ratatoskr. Apparently he's joined some 'order' that is the final straw for her. She frowns slightly, looking between the two.

"Are you at war with an order of restaurant workers?" she asks flatly, before stepping around the pair to make her attempt with the branch. She nods to Holly when she adds her strength. "Greetings, Holly."

There is, perhaps, the tiniest budge of a rock, but soon everything shakes, and the ground swallos them whole. Zephyr lets out a shriek in alarm, taking wing as everyone is ent plummeting down....

Hannah groans as she picks herself back up, dusting herself off. "No, nothing's broken," she says to... nobody. Nobody's spoken yet. She draws a crest graph from a pouch at her side and holds it out. It glows a firy red before a flame explodes to life over it. It is an angry flame, flames licking wildly out of it in a way that suggests it is barely contained and ready to blow up at any moment.

There is something... off, about that flame, for those sensitive to magic, but now is probably not the time for that.

Their surroundings light up, revealing a system of rough-hewn tunnels extending in several directions, with no indication of which way to go. Zephyr comes diving down from above to land on Hannah's shoulder, just before the hole collapses in on itself. The good news is it's all fallen in ward in a way that all the weight is braced against itself to keep it from caollapsing on them further. The bad news is... "We won't be getting out that way," she observes quietly.

She scans their surroundings. "Is everyone else okay? I suggest you two put... whatever that is aside for now. I'm Hannah, and this is Zephyr." That must be the hawk on her shoulder.

They're alone, except... somewhere, off in the distance, comes a high-pitched chittering noise. Or, correction, several high-pitched chittering noises. And then more, and more still. From just outside the range of her magical flame, glowing red eyes start to appear in the dark. They emerge from the darkness not in pairs of twos, but in threes--and they are not just amassing on the floor but on the walls and ceilings, as well. They all congregate, just outside the range of Hannah's flame until a critical mass have gathered, and then all at once...

They swarm.

"Look alive! And don't touch the ice!" Hannah reaches into her pouch and pulls out another crest graph--this one glows a bright blue-white for a moment before she slames it into the ground. A tidal wave of sharp, cruel ice surges out from it, spreading along the ground and creeping up the walls and ceilings as it engulfs the first wave coming down one of the hallways. (That sense of wrongness from her magic is stronger, but there are definitely more important things to deal with, now.)
</poem>

 DG: Hannah Curie has used her Tool Winter's Grasp Crest Graph toward her party's challenge, Death By A Thousand Cuts. 

 <Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
<poem>    "...So it is? So it is!" Ratatoskr's solid yellow eyes meet those narrowing ones of the Veruni, momentary asides aside as he steps away for positioning away from the reach of Amaterasu's blade with an expert eye for spatial relationships ingrained in all of Mother's abominable designs for those of Hyades.
 
     When a quake happens, Ratatoskr's grin comes back. "Cool... we can fight Dinoginos too...!"
 
     that is absolutely not what happens
 
     They plummet a ways into the... depths? They move in ''some'' direction relative to gravity's pull but there's something about this place where even that sometimes feels it's tough to comprehend. Ratatoskr lands skillfully, holding up the bag o' foodstuffs that cannot possibly still be warm... or fresh... unless there are some horrifying secrets involving thermal insulation and preservatives that the Merian restaurant industry have yet to unleash upon creation at large!
 
     (...no comment)
 
     "Hyahaha--! Come now...!" Ratatoskr's about ready to laugh off the idea they put matters aside, as strange creatures appear, and reappear as some other appearance, and they appear to find no appeal in everyone's appearances.
 
     "Don't touch the ice? Don't touch the ice!" Ratatoskr scoffs at the idea. While being able to directly manipulate and wield the energies of sorcery are beyond him, as he starts whirling with legs and elbows against the swarm, he just can't help but notice.
 
     There's something novel about this Crest Sorcery! It has a presence, some sort of magnetism as if he were of the same polarity as it. He does not identify with the feeling of goosebumps or hairs standing on end with this, because pain has failed to be a proper teacher for any Hyadean (by Mother's design).
 
     Assuming he fights a break in the action, "what's so different about the ice? What's so different about the ice!"
 
     He reaches out and touches it.
</poem>

 DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a risky Combat Action toward his party's challenge, Death By A Thousand Cuts. 

 <Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
<poem>
    Restaurant workers? Amaterasu wears a nakedly bemused expression as Hannah asks that of her, and perhaps if the earth had not in that moment split to swallow them all up, she might have received an answer.

    But as things go, though, instead they have a sudden drop into what lingers beneath. Amaterasu kicks off of a wall that ceases to exist shortly thereafter and righting herself, settles once they meet the ground in a three-point landing. She rises but a moment later.

    "I am fine," she affirms, turning but a glance Ratatoskr's way. "Our battle will need to wait another time," she tells him, glancing then this way and that. "We have hostiles approaching." Indeed, there is trouble on the horizon, chirping and chittering from further afield.

    "Amaterasu," she says to Hannah, by way of introduction. Her polearm still ablaze with light, she coolly gazes at the swarm. From a pocket on her person, she pulls out a stopwatch and clicks it the once.

    After that she is a blur, the light of Valkyrja's blade her beacon as she sees to the swarm in her own way, heeding Hannaha's warning but otherwise bidding the interchange between her and Ratatoskr little of her attention.

    She would like to see if it is possible to best her last time for a group of this size.
</poem>

 DG: Amaterasu has used her Tool Stopwatch toward her party's challenge, Death By A Thousand Cuts. Embolden! Party Combat
 boosted! Shortsighted! The party will suffer a penalty next round... but not this round!

 <Pose Tracker> Holly has posed.
<poem>The boulder falls and... Holly doesn't. She has wings and you know, can fly. She just kind of hovers there watching the others. There's... not a ton she can do on the fly. Though she does have that innate fairy thing and flies down after them to make sure they stay in the land of the living. 
 
 She doesn't land, checking on Hannah first since she knows the woman and then the others one at a time. "I don't think the entrance was rated for that boulder. We should find the builders." She's mostly joking, but she IS helping! 
 
 Hannah's flame magic gets a sidelong glance. There's more oddness afoot. That's a later problem though since they're now deep underground and her curiousity and decision to help the others means she's in for the long haul. Tempting as it is to just you know, nope out of a confined space again. She might be sticking a bit closer to the others as they go deeper. 
 
 That high pitched chittering? That actually gets a reaciton out of her. That's a lot of things and- well. She's tiny. She swishes her brush around. Water starting to coalesce around her. Spinning, almost visible in a shimmer-y way. She slings the brush with one hand, guiding the ink, creating a curse in midair. A deluge of water, stagnant and dirty almost. It starts to trail along the floor towards the mass. Clinging to the nightmare creatures. A myriad of clinging nastiness that's hard to shake off. 
 
 As she works, the ink spreading further she calls out, "Holly! Hi." Not that anyone immediately asked. She should have done that earlier when she was trying to help them! 
 
 Also as she works she's totally talking about various myhtological things these critters resemble, but aren't quite. She's a little motor mouth unitl she catches herself. Bouncing away from the light of that blade and giving her another curious look. "Neat."
</poem>

 DG: Holly has used her Tool Withering Curses toward her party's challenge, Death By A Thousand Cuts. Embolden! Party
 Combat boosted!

 ========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
 ===================<* CHALLENGE - Death By A Thousand Cuts *>===================
 | Type: Exploration  | Dungeon Ability: Combat          | Challenge Rating: 3  |
 ---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
   It could be any dungeon passageway in any ruin you so choose. Except, this    
   is the Nightmare, so it's hardly 'any dungeon'.                               
                                                                                 
   Neither is the threat that's soon upon you: small (read: roughly rat-sized)   
   shape-changing set upon you en masse, shifting their appearance wildly as     
   they go on the attack.                                                        
                                                                                 
   Handling this many opponents may be difficult, but you've no other choice!    
 ============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
 |           Embolden:_Combat_Up!, Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!,          |
 |           Shortsighted:_All_Stats_Down!, and Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!            |
 = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================

 ===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 2 *>====================
 =====================< Results - Death By A Thousand Cuts >=====================
 Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Amaterasu                           15 --(0)--> 15                 Pass
 Stopwatch                           3   Combat  Effects: Shortsighted and Embo
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Ratatoskr                           10 --(0)--> 10                 Pass
 Fight                               1   Combat  Effects: Risky                
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Hannah Curie                        27 --(0)--> 27                 Pass
 Winter's Grasp Crest Graph          3   Combat  Effects: Efficient            
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Holly                               27 --(0)--> 27                 Pass
 Withering Curses                    2   Combat  Effects: Embolden             
 -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
 Leader: Amaterasu                   15 --(20)--> 35                Pass
 Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Tire(2)
 Effects: Embolden(1)|Shortsighted(1)
 ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================

 DG: The party led by Amaterasu 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> Hannah Curie has posed.
<poem>
Hannah landed hard but doesn't appear to be injured, and she gives Holly a grateful nod as the fairy checks on her when she's getting up. "Thank you." Her voice is a bit flat and terse at the moment, but she does have a note of warmth in it for the fairy.

Hannah is glad Amaterasu is seemingly sensible enough to put whatever her dispute with Ratatoskr is aside for the moment, though she does give that stopwatch an odd glance as she starts it. Is she seriously ''timing'' this? Well it won't get in the way of the fighting, so she won't say anything, but still...

The swarming things come, chittering echos bouncing off the walls as they come with tooth and claw and sometimes suddenly more or less of either or both. Hannah unleashes waves of ice to trap and encase them even as more attempt to rush in over the ice once it becomes safe to touch--though she just unleashes additional waves.

Ratatoskr finds out what's so different about the ice. When he goes to touch it, the ice starts to creep up his fingers, and would certainly start to encase his arm were it not for Hannah's intervention yanking his hand away. "You idiot!" She doesn't explain, but...

Hannah freezes large numbers of them in their place. Holly's curses do much the same, creeping along the floor to encase whole swaths of them at once. Amaterasu and Ratatoskr take them on in melee, with a flurry of blade strikes and legs and elbows. The numbers of the creatures start to thin--eventually they lose the quorum needed to be considered a swarm and the remainder skitter off into the darkness.

Everything becomes silent once more, and no more eyes fill the darkness.

After the fighting stops Hannah wheels on Ratatoskr. "That was a ''warning'', you idiot! I have a hard enough time directing it to where it needs to go. I don't need ''you'' being reckless on top of that!"

She huffs and puts the ice crest graph away, but is still holding that torch one out for illumination. "At the risk of repeating myself... is anyone injured?"
</poem>

 DG: Ratatoskr has drawn a new Challenge.

 ========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
 ===================<* CHALLENGE - Inch By Inch Row By Row *>====================
 | Type: Exploration  | Dungeon Ability: Wits            | Challenge Rating: 2  |
 ---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
   The Nightmare contains multitudes. This includes, apparently, what looks to   
   be a perfectly normal garden -- the sort of thing that would make most        
   Filgaian farmers green with envy. Plants are everywhere within the garden.    
                                                                                 
   But... wait a moment here. These plants don't look quite right. Some seem     
   stunted. Some seem like they're refusing to bloom. Others aren't even plants  
   but colored crystal. Something's gone wrong here -- this isn't how a garden   
   is supposed to grow.                                                          
                                                                                 
   You have the oddest sense that the Nightmare itself is expecting you to fix   
   this for it, somehow. But can you work out what's wrong here and set it       
   right?                                                                        
 ============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
 |           Embolden:_Combat_Up!, Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!,          |
 |           Shortsighted:_All_Stats_Down!, and Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!            |
 = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================

 <Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
<poem>    When Ratatoskr touches it, there's a feeling that he's both familiar with and... not. One of his pastimes once he got outside of the Photosphere (at last, as part of a proper mission) was to fight the snow. This is exactly as nonsensical as it sounds - the Guardians fought against the Metal Demons with what might they could, and that the environs were surrounded by ice and snow meant that he felt a particular kinship with Aru Solatu, the Guardian of Ice.
 
     (This 'kinship' was 'early onset frostbite,' held from going the full way by his particular biology.)
 
     Even when Hannah manages to jerk his hand away, there's a pervasive numbness that doesn't go away even as he flexes his fingers - not even in the way of which he'd be familiar and accustomed.
 
     "You direct spells after they're cast..." Ratatoskr muses aloud as the very nature of the things they are - or were - fighting seems to take a backseat as he is entranced in the novelty of temporarily losing feeling in his hand. He steps around the strange inked-over shapes of those creatures.
 
     He adds a glance over to Amaterasu, and her handiwork, and is sort of divided between whether he's upset he missed her handiwork in place of getting to not feeling his hand right now. (Luckily he's carrying The Order, whatever it is, in the other hand.)
 
     It's okay, they'll pick up the battle later.
 
     ...But woe be to all, what lies next is... &#42; &#42; &#42; peaceful &#42; &#42; &#42;.
 
     A garden awaits, with strange off-hue skies and a feeling that this space doesn't quite understand the concept of 'humidity' but has come somewhat close to it, but it's filled with... greenery? Uh. Some of it looks more like... bluery?
 
     Did reality ask an AI prompt of a photograph of a thriving garden? (One of the plants looks like they're made of at least seven human fingers.)
 
     The colorations bely their state of bloom or health. SOme aren't blooming. Some are too small. Some seem oddly proportioned, like the whole of them were stretched or squished across a 2-D plane and then just fed over to this 3(?)-D one.
 
     But the most horrifying thing aobut it is that it is &#42; &#42; &#42; peaceful &#42; &#42; &#42;.
 
     Ratatoskr gets out the old busted-looking Hyadean datapad thing in his free hand, and fumbles around with it a bit.
 
     "...Doesn't this almost look like Elw stuff...?" He wonders, as some of them do seem kind of crystalline. (They are the wrong hue for that assertion, though.)
</poem>

 DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Corrupted Records toward his party's challenge, Inch By Inch Row By Row. Stalwart! Party
 shielded from some Exhaustion this round!

 <Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
<poem>
    The last one is downed in a flurry of strikes, leaving Amaterasu standing among the fallen as the rest scatter as she clicks the button on her stopwatch. Soon, even the remnants of those creatures fade away.

    "Hm... passable," she remarks, gazing at the screen. "Still, I had hoped to best it by more than this." Shaking her head, she tucks the stopwatch away and turns to face the others.

    "Enough of that, Ratatoskr," she likewise admonishes. "We are in unfamiliar terrain as it stands." In other words, it is best to remove any variables or other elements that might jeopardize their survival here.

    Is this what had befallen her sister? Had Kaguya fallen prey to this strange location?

    ...No, actually, she doesn't think that at all. Perhaps her sister had been here, but as overprotective as Amaterasu can be, she doesn't think this had been a trap for her sister--

    "Interesting," Amaterasu remarks, not unaware of the exchange between Ratatoskr and Hannah. A model soldier is aware of many things.

    Though, to pick up that earlier thread, actually--

    Speaking of her sister, when they arrive in the 'space' ('space' is the best word for... this) ahead Amaterasu is forced to re-evaluate her earlier assessment.
    In a sense.

    "If Kaguya had been here, she would be here still," she remarks, eyeing the plant that appears to be entirely fingers. "...Nor does this look like her work."

    Standing there, she regards the plants in this garden, her arms folded over her chest. She doesn't do much else. This is not her specialty, after all.

    "Does it? Hmm..."

    And a soldier knows when to best apply her talents... and stay out of the way of those applying theirs.
</poem>

 DG: Amaterasu has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Inch By Inch Row By Row. 

 <Pose Tracker> Holly has posed.
<poem>Holly floats around the area, peeking at things. She doesn't quite poke anything. Intellectual curiosity only going so far really. Especially with regards to someone's attempt to make a spooky story prompt into a real life... thing. She stays in the air for this one, bobbing around getting a better look at least. At least at first. 
 
 Floating past the first few plants, then lifting up higher she calls down, "Do you think there's something hidden behind the wrongness? A wall that's disturbing so you don't want to touch it sort of thing? But a door." She mimics the shape of a door, not.. really thinking about it being obvious enough. 
 
 She does try flicking some enchanted ink at a few flowers. Just.. to see what happens. She also notably stays away from the handplants. Plant hands. Grabby leaves? "Maybe we could just ignore iet all and-" she gestures around. "Knock a hole in the wall." There's the pragmatist's take. "Shame to break something even so weird though." She bobs back and forth, more or less rambling. 
 
 The less fortunate looking plants also get her focus, scattered as it may be. No water or ink for these though. Well, maybe a bit of water, The clean kind. She can do that. She mixes in some fairy healing magic, proving definitively that she CAN do it. She's just unlikely to do it!
</poem>

 DG: Holly has used her Tool Librarian's Recitation toward her party's challenge, Inch By Inch Row By Row. Enlighten!
 Party Wits boosted! Shortsighted! The party will suffer a penalty next round... but not this round!

 <Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
<poem>
The ice on Rata's fingers shatters and falls off quickly once separated by the body of the spell. Small blessings, at that.

'You direct spells after they're cast' Hannah's eyes widen a bit in shock before her gaze hardens again. "It is a spell designed to ensnare my opponents." Not really giving a lot away, there--any tiny foot falls (or slithering underbellies, or...) that touched the ice soon had ice creep up it much like it was starting to creep up Rata's hand. Only this time... she let it cover them completely.

She feels bad about it, but it's a simple matter of survival.

Hannah extinguishes her 'torch' once they no longer need it, warily watching her surroundings as they traverse the space... though she is sneaking a few appraising looks at Amaterasu's armor and polearm.

But Amaterasu mentions a 'Kaguya'--though she doesn't have any context for that name, she can guess... "Looking for someone?" Then they reach the room and she frowns as she surveys the strange garden. "... I doubt this is the type of place where we're likely to pick up a trail..."

But the plants do get her interest. They aren't a particular interest of hers, but... she slips a hefty book from her satchel and starts to wander admists the plants, flipping through it as she starts identifying various ailments. "This might be a nutrient deficiency... Possible infestation..." She gets to the finger plant and... flips furiously through it. "Could be some kind of mimic...?"

"I doubt this place would take kindly to that, Holly." She's taking notes as she goes, and Rata makes a suggestion, which she actually considers. "... Similar, at least..." And then she starts trying to eliminate causes, trying to find a commonality among them.
</poem>

 DG: Hannah Curie has used her Tool Monteblanc's Manual of Mysteries, Mazes, and Monsters, 5th Revised Edition toward her
 party's challenge, Inch By Inch Row By Row. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!

 ========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
 ===================<* CHALLENGE - Inch By Inch Row By Row *>====================
 | Type: Exploration  | Dungeon Ability: Wits            | Challenge Rating: 2  |
 ---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
   The Nightmare contains multitudes. This includes, apparently, what looks to   
   be a perfectly normal garden -- the sort of thing that would make most        
   Filgaian farmers green with envy. Plants are everywhere within the garden.    
                                                                                 
   But... wait a moment here. These plants don't look quite right. Some seem     
   stunted. Some seem like they're refusing to bloom. Others aren't even plants  
   but colored crystal. Something's gone wrong here -- this isn't how a garden   
   is supposed to grow.                                                          
                                                                                 
   You have the oddest sense that the Nightmare itself is expecting you to fix   
   this for it, somehow. But can you work out what's wrong here and set it       
   right?                                                                        
 ============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
 |           Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!,           |
 |           Shortsighted:_All_Stats_Down!, and Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!            |
 = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================

 ===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 3 *>====================
 =====================< Results - Inch By Inch Row By Row >======================
 Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Amaterasu                           15 --(23)--> 38                Fail
 Investigate                         0   Wits    Effects: BASIC                
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Ratatoskr                           10 --(0)--> 10                 Pass
 Corrupted Records                   2   Wits    Effects: Stalwart             
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Hannah Curie                        27 --(3)--> 30                 Pass
 Monteblanc's Manual of Mysteries, M 2   Wits    Effects: Enlighten            
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Holly                               27 --(3)--> 30                 Pass
 Librarian's Recitation              3   Wits    Effects: Shortsighted and Enli
 -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
 Leader: Amaterasu                   35 --(20)--> 55                Pass
 Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Tire(1)
 Effects: Enlighten(1)|Shortsighted(1)
 ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================

 DG: The party led by Amaterasu 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> Ratatoskr has posed.
<poem>    While everyone else muses, Ratatoskr struggles with his datapad again. It drops into the soft-powdery-muddy-brownish-stuff that ''should'' be ground, and currently has the correct heading and relationship with gravity in this place to count as that, and it gets to the point he has to consciously shift the Living Metal of his claws into his fingers as to not scratch it up.
 
     ...
 
     While Holly runs her mouth, she will discover to her horror there ''is'' no wall, but there might be a hole. Everything might be a hole here. The strange plants with additional fingers do not reach out to cause any problems, but there is a sense of reaction when she applies healing powers to them. Some grow... and keep growing... and twist in weird shapes, blooming into impossible but beautiful displays of color.
 
     "It's very different from other Crest Sorcery I've seen...!" Ratatoskr says, enamored with how he still doesn't have feeling in his free hand as he's tapping on the datapad on the ground, while Hannah looks into the book and might find something promising that Ratatoskr will get around to voicing in just a moment.
 
     Amaterasu can be offended on Kaguya's behalf as to how wrong this all looks, even when Holly 'fixes' at least one of them. Would Kaguya come here in search of answers, or some other items for her craft?
 
     Ratatoskr, however...
 
     "Some of these... look like fields of flowers that warriors of Lacour once traditionally burned and crushed prior to advancing on an enemy fortification..." Ratatoskr grins, and that kind of destructive behavior says a ''lot'' about how Filgaia's turned out the way it has.
 
     Hannah will see the resemblance.
 
     Energy gathers at the tip of Ratatoskr's forehead horn. "...Let's do that!"
 
     Nothing's stopping them from doing it. This might even be the correct thing to do! Indulge in a bit of Lacour-region warrior culture for funsies!! Burn and crush all the flowers!
 
     ...Nonetheless, nothing stops them from continuing on.
</poem>

 DG: Holly has drawn a new Challenge.

 ========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
 ========================<* CHALLENGE - Untired Hands *>=========================
 | Type: Exploration  | Dungeon Ability: Agility         | Challenge Rating: 3  |
 ---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
   It is difficult to grasp the nature of the Nightmare even at its lowest ebbs  
   of strangeness. Unfortunately for you, the current status of the Nightmare    
   is about as far from normal as it can get: you walk a beach under green       
   alien skies--                                                                 
                                                                                 
   And from the sands there erupts hands. Countless numbers of them in           
   monochrome hues, reaching and snatching for your feet and lower legs.         
                                                                                 
   They're not gentle. They'll hold you fast if you don't evade them.            
 ============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
 |            Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Shortsighted:_All_Stats_Down!, and           |
 |                            Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up!                            |
 = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================

 <Pose Tracker> Holly has posed.
<poem>Holly gives Rata a curious look at the description of things being burned and crushed prior. "I don't think I've ever seen any references to hand plants growing before being burned down." 
 
 Still, they made it through with a healthy dose of just breaking everything. That works, kind of, right? 
 
 Best not think about it as far as Holly's concerned. She might have defaced a few things, but she's largely trying to keep things in tact! 
 
 The uh, special colors of the sky gets a tacit admission from the fairy, "Saw something like this once when I tried to eat a mushroom growing in one of the side rooms. It looked safe, but you know what they say about those kinds of things." She kind of just.. rambles for a bit. Bobbing along, watching the field. 
 
 And there are grasping fingers starting to reach from the sand. Small mounds at first. Fingers gripping at the air. Soon followed by hands reaching up and grabbing at their feet. Holly just.. flies over them. Or tries to. 
 
 Those hands though, multiple colors. Blues, greens, fleshy tones. All shapes, all kinds. It's a nightmare, they're probably all sorts of strange. 
 
 This also prompts a note from Holly, "I heard of a spell like this. The grasping hands would slow armies down." then she pauses. "Where did I read that though?" She's a bit distracted
</poem>

 DG: Holly has used her Tool Strange Wind toward her party's challenge, Untired Hands. Cleanse! All negative effects will
 be cleared at the end of the round!

 <Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
<poem>    It's a beach! It's a safe estimate because it feels like sand and there's crashing waves of something green-ish reflecting off the strange green skies, and Ratatoskr's solid yellow eyes happen upon the hands coming up and out of the ground, reaching up and grasping. Only the hands. Ratatoskr considers the possibility of wrestling those rocky fellas, flinging limbs and just having a grand ol' time in between hunting hatching flea eggs (wait, what? hold up).
 
     But then, one of those hands reaches up towards the nebulously defined Food Order that Ratatoskr has been hell-bent on delivering, and then it dawns upon him.
 
     He has a greater responsibility.
 
     His secondary function would have been that of a battlefield messenger for when communications systems were compromised, in the Metal Demons' final days. Messages were important. This food...
 
     Is a message.
 
     In a great show of responsibility, rather than indulge in his curiosity, he pulls out that busted-looking crystalline teleportation device and carelessly and irresponsibly activates it to just send himself in some direction 'away.' Like a responsible nineteen-to-twenty-five-year-old young adult should!
</poem>

 DG: Ratatoskr has used his Tool Teleporter Fragment toward his party's challenge, Untired Hands. Stalwart! Party
 shielded from some Exhaustion this round!

 <Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
<poem>
Rata comments further on her Crest Sorcery, which is... not a topic Hannah feels like discussing. "There are lots of different ways of practicing it," she comments flatly. "Just... don't touch it again."

How consider of her to issue another warning.

But she investigates, and then Rata makes his gugestion, and she looks up. "Wha--No! What on Filgaia makes you think this place would want that? We aren't an advancing army." (And even if they were, that might still be too extreme a tactic.)

Regardless, they're able to advance, and then they emerge... onto a beach. With a green sky. She looks up at it for a moment. Zephyr chirps, and Hannah nods. "Yeah."

Also they're supposedly underground right now but Hannah tries not to think of that too much.

They set across the beach, and... soon there are hands grasping for them. "What is it with this place putting hands and fingers where they don't belong?" she asks as she starts to try and dance around them. Zephyr takes off, circling overhead as Hannah breaks into a run.

She's looking forward, not down at the hands, but... Zephyr seems to have that covered. He's chirping--warnings? And each time Hannah suddenly leaps one way or another out of the path of something emerging or freshly emerged and now grabbing for her.

"I've heard--hup--of a dungeon trap that involves--whoa--hands emerging from a wall--gah--to ensnare someone, but--ah!--I don't think these are those," she comments, in fragments, to Holly as she runs.
</poem>

 DG: Hannah Curie has used her Tool Zephyr toward her party's challenge, Untired Hands. Rally! 

 <Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
<poem>
    "Hmm, yes," Amaterasu muses, on the subject of Hannah's magic. It's unlike, too, the magic she had seen when working among Althena's Guard in Spira, or that of the Spirans themselves. Could it be some variant of Guardianism, perhaps? While she has only had fleeting encounters with their shamans and the like, they do allegedly boast a connection to the living protectors of the planet -- ones that will not hear the call of the Veruni.

    And magic, outside what is necessary to use and to know, has never been her specialty.

    Is she looking for someone? "Yes," Amaterasu says, though she doesn't explain further -- not immediately, in any case. "I do not think she is here."

    "Is that so?"

    This, she speaks to Ratatoskr when he tells of Lacour and the traditions there. "Did it grant them any benefit in the field of combat, by chance? --Oh."

    She pointedly takes a step backwards as they see to the destruction of the odd (an understatement) flowers and plants; her mask's faceplate slams into position as her suit takes understandable precautions.

    Perhaps she will not mention this part to Kaguya, when she finds her.

    The faceplate is down, still, as they emerge from whatever remains of the garden; the series of glowing lines there would illuminate the dark of the caves -- if there were still darkness to illuminate. They are on an impossible beach, under and impossible sky. The sand shifts. "Scatter," Amaterasu calls before the hands emerge, racing across the sands as the hands erupt from beneath. In other circumstances she would have have solved the problem with Valkyrja, but there are too many unknowns. She instead runs in the direction of a purple palm tree and with the aid of her suit's footwear, runs directly up its trunk as if it were merely another stretch of the beach.
</poem>

 DG: Amaterasu has used her Tool All-Surface Boots toward her party's challenge, Untired Hands. Quicken! Party Agility
 boosted!

 ========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
 ========================<* CHALLENGE - Untired Hands *>=========================
 | Type: Exploration  | Dungeon Ability: Agility         | Challenge Rating: 3  |
 ---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
   It is difficult to grasp the nature of the Nightmare even at its lowest ebbs  
   of strangeness. Unfortunately for you, the current status of the Nightmare    
   is about as far from normal as it can get: you walk a beach under green       
   alien skies--                                                                 
                                                                                 
   And from the sands there erupts hands. Countless numbers of them in           
   monochrome hues, reaching and snatching for your feet and lower legs.         
                                                                                 
   They're not gentle. They'll hold you fast if you don't evade them.            
 ============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
 |           Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, and           |
 |                            Suffer:_Exhaustion_Up!                            |
 = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================

 ========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 4 *>=========================
 ========================< Results - Untired Hands >=======================================
 Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------
 Amaterasu                           38 --(0)--> 38                 Pass
 All-Surface Boots                   2   Agility Effects: Quicken              
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------
 Ratatoskr                           10 --(0)--> 10                 Pass
 Teleporter Fragment                 2   Agility Effects: Stalwart             
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------
 Hannah Curie                        30 --(0)--> 30                 Pass
 Zephyr                              2   Agility Effects: Efficient and Rally  
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------
 Holly                               30 --(0)--> 30                 Pass
 Strange Wind                        2   Agility Effects: Cleanse and Inefficie
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------< Party >---------------------

 DG: The party led by Amaterasu 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> Holly has posed.
<poem>Those grasping hands, grabbing blindly are... well. Grabbing blindly. Without anything to really guide them beyond the nightmare logic of the maze, they don't really get that far at stopping anyone. Holly maybe needs to get out more though as she's currently messing with one by poking at it with the pen side of her brush and staying just out of reach. Because it's kind of funny and to be fair, it's to get a better look at the thing. "Who thinks of this kind of stuff? Why just the hands? If you're trying to grab someone to keep them from getting further why not do like... a vortex with ants. Those lion ant things right?" 
 
 This only goes on a little bit as she realizes it's probably bad form to give the maybe sentient maze options for slowing them down further. 
 
 Ratatoskr's able to just deftly avoid all of them. It doesn't seem to matter that much ultimately though, they're not particularly deft. 
 
 "Hannah later I want to run some things with you later. About that ice, before I forget." Again. Again. She'll probably forget, or if she doesn't maybe she can help with the.. something. Maybe. Between Zephyr and herself, as with everyone else those grasping hands do nothing of matter. 
 
 "Who's here?" Holly asks Amaterasu, surprised that she's still seeking people here. She'd meant to ask, but forgot it. And she's rambly. Maybe it'll stick. Either way she just outruns the hands attemps to trip her up. Easy!

</poem>

 DG: Amaterasu has drawn a new Challenge.
 ========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
 =========================<* CHALLENGE - Me's A Crowd *>=========================
 | Type: Climax       | Dungeon Ability: Combat          | Challenge Rating: 3  |
 ---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
   As you make your way to the apparent heart of the Nightmare, you find         
   yourself in a space glittering with apparent treasures. What wonders there    
   are here in its heart, even if you only 'know' this and cannot discern a      
   single detail about what you've found!                                        
                                                                                 
   But the moment you pick one of the indistinct yet surely wondrous objects up  
   you realize you're not alone here.                                            
                                                                                 
   Because you're already here. Why, here you are and here you are and here you  
   are!                                                                          
                                                                                 
   These other yous don't look quite right, though.                              
                                                                                 
   On top of that, they're actually pretty hostile!                              
                                                                                 
   BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJvuJvT4OhA                              
 ============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
 |       Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, Maim:_Combat_Down!,       |
 |             Quicken:_Agility_Up!, and Treasure:_Exploration_Up!              |
 = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================

 <Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
<poem>
    She stands, for a time, atop the unpalm-like palm. A balmy breeze catches her long blonde hair before she then leaps from that height, landing atop a grasping palm of a different sort and leaps from opening hand to opening hand across the beach.

    "No one," Amaterasu says in response to Holly's question, as she reaches the beach's terminus, as sand gives way to long crystalline splinders spanning the void that otherwise rises to meet them. Back, towards the grasping beach, or ahead and towards the glimmer on the horizon?

    Kaguya is not here -- should not be here -- but let it never be said that a soldier left her duty undone. Mapping the places of Filgaia is as much an interest of the Veruni as anything else she might turn her hand towards. And so, she ventures towards the glittering horizon.

    There is a spray of crystals afloat on void-sea. That is the impression one might have stepping into this space that cannot exist. And there are things that shimmer enticingly here in the center of the crystalline 'hand'--

    Though, strangely, any comprehension of what these curious things might be skims across the surface of the mind like a waterbug. They cannot be understood, but they can still be possessed.

    Amaterasu, perhaps perplexed by this very mystery, has taken one of these mysterious objects in hand. When she has turned away, she finds that she is faced by herself, three-fold. In grayscale and pastel and hues of blue and gold alone, Amaterasu faces Amaterasus, who have all drawn their weapons.

    She has taken again in hand that stopwatch.

    "Even without a prior record, I am curious," she remarks, as she taps the button.

    It is not everyday one is able to face herself, and she is quite interested how she should stack up. Her mask is not the only thing that causes the crystals about them to shimmer with reflected light. Her Valkyrja, too, causes a lightshow as she drives at a distorted color-copy of herself.
</poem>

 DG: Amaterasu has used her Tool Stopwatch toward her party's challenge, Me's A Crowd. Embolden! Party Combat boosted!
 Shortsighted! The party will suffer a penalty next round... but not this round!


 <Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
<poem>    Somewhere in this incredible light show of the wielder of Valkyrja's masterful technique against three off-color carbon copies, Ratatoskr bounds up past two of his own - one whose ready stance is more appropriate to a completely different martial art than what he uses (his has uncanny resemblances to Muay Thai), another who has boxing gloves on and seems to be furiously checking their own Hyadean datapad. (with boxing gloves on, he presumably gets a lot of weekly messages and amusing situations out of it)
 
     "Here! Here is your order...!" Ratatoskr hands the bag of The Order to another of him who is some off-shade of green, who mouths something of a 'finally! Finally?'
 
     This whole scenario has any number of logical and existential questions that will never, ever have a satisfying answer.
 
     Or, uh, any answer.
 
     At all.
 
     The most gentle and reassuring thing that comes after the fact is the violence, while the greenish one has something like a burger in their mouth - elbows, knees, discharges of compressed air at shotgun-like force. (The one with boxing gloves seems to shoot confetti?)
</poem>

 DG: Ratatoskr has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Me's A Crowd. 

 <Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
<poem>
"I hope you find them, wherever they might be," says Hannah when Amaterasu confirms that she is, in fact, looking for someone.

Holly makes a suggestion for a better trap, and Hannah gives her a flat stare without saying anything, then raises a single eyebrow. She is probably also thinking that Holly shouldn't give the possibly sentient cave more ideas.

"Mm. Later, not now," she says to Holly's request.

Amaterasu may not be well-versed in magic, but Hannah is, and the sight of the sea of unknowable objects immediately grabs the attention of an academic's mind. She doesn't grab one immediately, studying them as she hypothesizes. "... half-phased, cloaked from senses, extra-deimensional, made of exotic or magical material..." she mutters to herself as she considers, and finally, at length, she reaches out to touch one.

Zephyr, though, is ever watchful, and raises an alarm. Hannah's hand withdraws, and she looks around to see...

Herself. And herself, and herself.

They all seem normal--all in the right hues and everything. Hannah's hand goes to her pouch, but something in their expressions gives her pause. They're all smirking at her, as if they know something she doesn't.

But then, instinctively, she knows it too, and she takes a step back. "No..." she whispers to herself. And she's far too absorbed in the revelation to catch Ratatoskr's dubious completion of his delivery, however improbable that may be.

It's little changes at first. A smile parting to reveal fangs that are just a little too sharp, nails growing just a little too long, eyes growing just a bit too bright. But then more changes--a forked tongue licking lips, nails turning black, pupils shifting into vertical slits. And they all start to advance as once.

"N-no!" Hannah's heart is pounding in her chest as she grabs the first crest graph she can and slams it into the ground. It is not a wave of ice but a tsunami that catches the dopplegangers in a flash-freeze, extending far further behind them than is necessary.

The wrongness of her earlier ice is manifest in her now, something roiling within her as she pants, trying to catch her breath and regain her composure.
</poem>

 DG: Hannah Curie has risked with her Tool Winter's Grasp Crest Graph toward her party's challenge, Me's A Crowd. 

 <Pose Tracker> Holly has posed.
<poem>Holly shoots Amaterasu a look as she drifts past, backwards. Still out of reach of those hands. "No one huh?" Shrugging at her. "Can't say much for talking to oneself. Did it for a few years an-" she stops. She caught herself early this time! 
 
 Hannah's response gets a, "Yeah later later. Bet I can try to help though." she twirls her finger as she talks, kind of emphasizing later. She's not chattering.. as much. 
 
 She bumps into herself on that note. Spinning to face the strangeness that is a blue version of herself. Also a purple one. She points at them and says, "Nope, I've already stopped talking to myself. Go away again." And promptly blats the first one in the face with her paintbrush. Or at least she tries. The ink would splash, spreading that same sapping curse as before. The non-descript nastiness she's fond of because it's easy and she's lazier than she'd like to admit anymore. 
 
 Though if it is a clone of herself, there might be a water bubble to slow things down. She doesn't know how much they're stealing from her. Or how much of it's real. "Pretty sure it's not real!" she states, seemingly talking to herself. Bobbing back she looks somewhat embarrassed. And covers it up by swinging at the next clone! 
 
 Spinning to make some distance and to maybe just flush the mess away as she starts to tap into some symbology, she pauses. As Rata hands off a delivery to himself. "That's cheating." the tone's joking at least. Then she turns to try and deal with smaller problems
</poem>

 DG: Holly has used her Tool Withering Curses toward her party's challenge, Me's A Crowd. Embolden! Party Combat boosted!

 ========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
 =========================<* CHALLENGE - Me's A Crowd *>=========================
 | Type: Climax       | Dungeon Ability: Combat          | Challenge Rating: 3  |
 ---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
   As you make your way to the apparent heart of the Nightmare, you find         
   yourself in a space glittering with apparent treasures. What wonders there    
   are here in its heart, even if you only 'know' this and cannot discern a      
   single detail about what you've found!                                        
                                                                                 
   But the moment you pick one of the indistinct yet surely wondrous objects up  
   you realize you're not alone here.                                            
                                                                                 
   Because you're already here. Why, here you are and here you are and here you  
   are!                                                                          
                                                                                 
   These other yous don't look quite right, though.                              
                                                                                 
   On top of that, they're actually pretty hostile!                              
                                                                                 
   BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJvuJvT4OhA                              
 ============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
 |      Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Embolden:_Combat_Up!, Madness:_Wits_Down!,      |
 |            Maim:_Combat_Down!, Shortsighted:_All_Stats_Down!, and            |
 |                          Treasure:_Exploration_Up!                           |
 = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
 ===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 5 *>====================
 ===========================< Results - Me's A Crowd >===========================
 Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Amaterasu                           38 --(5)--> 43                 Pass
 Stopwatch                           3   Combat  Effects: Shortsighted and Embo
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Ratatoskr                           10 --(5)--> 15                 Pass
 Fight                               0   Combat  Effects: BASIC                
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Hannah Curie                        30 --(5)--> 35                 Pass
 Winter's Grasp Crest Graph          4   Combat  Effects: Efficient and Risky  
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Holly                               30 --(17)--> 47                Fail
 Withering Curses                    2   Combat  Effects: Embolden             
 -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
 Leader: Amaterasu                   75 --(0)--> 75                 Pass
 Conditions: Cripple|Madness|Maim|Treasure(1)
 Effects: Embolden(1)|Shortsighted(1)
 ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================

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

 ========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
 ========================<* CHALLENGE - Escaping Chaos *>========================
 | Type: Final        | Dungeon Ability: Agility         | Challenge Rating: 3  |
 ---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
   However you deal with your strange doubled (tripled, quadrupled) selves may   
   be the easy part in the end.                                                  
                                                                                 
   Now you are faced with the full brunt of the Nightmare as it seems to come    
   fully unwound. Perhaps what you claimed in its heart agitated it. Regardless  
   -- if it had seemed near dreamlike in its presentation before, it doubles     
   down on it now.                                                               
                                                                                 
   Walls rotate into floors. Moving in one direction takes you in a completely   
   separate one. You walk on water, you walk on clouds, you fly, you fall, you   
   step into a soupy mass.                                                       
                                                                                 
   You can see the light of the outside world ahead, not far now. But can you    
   negotiate the obstacles that the changing form of the Nightmare presents to   
   you now?                                                                      
 ============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
 |      Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Embolden:_Combat_Up!, Madness:_Wits_Down!,      |
 | Maim:_Combat_Down!, Shortsighted:_All_Stats_Down!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, and  |
 |                             Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!                             |
 = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================

 <Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
<poem>
    "Indeed," says Amaterasu to Hannah. "I intend to."

    Worry is not the right word for it. Not ''yet''. A concern has begun to bundle up at Amaterasu's core, but it has still far to go to become worry. There are many places left to check, and Kaguya...

    Kaguya often retreats from the world for a long time. Perhaps she has even left Filgaia behind again for Lunar, where the Veruni presence is thin. But all things must be approached methodically, and there is much and more she might accomplish in the searching.

    Including, as it happens, her test of herself. Her other herselfs draw upon their own understanding of Veruni Ether, and her other herselfs similarly arm themselves with doubles to the weapon she so prefers. It's all the more challenging then as they trade blows and parry and weave. In the end, there can only be one standing.

    Amaterasu, the real and properly-colored one, stands firm. Nothing remains of her duplicates. Tapping the stopwatch's button, she glances at her time and... smiles, slightly, exposing a set of too-sharp teeth.

    Other contests of the self come to their close. However much her other selves might terrify, Hannah will find herself the victor... for good or for ill.

    Holly will discover that while her other selves are not 'real' as such -- for she is the one who emerges from the fray -- there is a difference between 'not real' and 'not dangerous'. A hard-won victory, and yet...

    Ratatoskr wins. There is no trace of the meal delivery anymore.
    No trace at all. Perhaps, this may be just as well.
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
<poem>    "Cheating? Cheating!" Ratatoskr snaps at Holly. "That's the client...!" He bears down upon the fairy with those solid yellow eyes for a while, and then, some moments later as though this were at last a novel thing to take note of. "...You're very small..."
 
     ...anyway...
 
     Ratatoskr grabs hold of something absent-mindedly (there was a shine), but that 'something' has to wait as suddenly, things take a... turn? Is it really a turn? There's a direction here that might be more appropriate to call... a loop. Things taking a loop for the worse. A rise for the worse? A fall for the worse. Maybe even a standing still for the worse, but no matter how you slice it, things. Get. Worse.
 
     (Unless you are fond of colors in the green and blue range, then that's the silver lining. Teal lining? Uuuuuuuuuggggggh.)
 
     There's a feeling of spatial disassociation with the environs, as all that looks ahead twists (but does not shout) in strange ways, with the only anchoring same-ness to one's sight and senses is a distant light - the light of fading day that feels more familiar and desirable.
 
     "...Well, I'm done for the day," Ratatoskr speaks nonchalanatly in a tone that is still nonetheless obnoxiously energetic, "come on...!"
 
     His body language is not nonchalant, as he takes off running - going to threes (he's carrying a nebulous something or another) and staggering and stumbling when the full sense of touch and feel still fails to return to the hand that touched Hannah's ice.
 
     He tumbles along open space, down on the ceiling, perpendicular of the wall in a standstill, and other such spatially bizarre ways to pratfall that would make a certain Water Seraph jealous and/or horrified.
 
     At some juncture he does have to, in fact, cheat - and draw out that crystalline handheld teleportation device (fragment) and attempt to point it in a direction that actually ''is'' a direction relevant to intent and desire.
</poem>

 DG: Ratatoskr has risked with his Tool Teleporter Fragment toward his party's challenge, Escaping Chaos. Stalwart! Party
 shielded from some Exhaustion this round!

 <Pose Tracker> Hannah Curie has posed.
<poem>
It takes a long few moments for Hannah to regain her composure. And more than a few gentle chirping noises from Zephyr. (Zephyr might preen consolingly at her hair a little but she will deny it to her dying days if anyone dares ask her about it.) Eventually, she stands again and puts her crest graph away.

Hannah looks to Holly and quietly comments, "They may not be 'real', but it is never wise to underestimate these things." Her tone is a fair bit more gentle than normal, offering advice to the fairy and not admonishment.

She looks to Amaterasu, who seems to ahve successfully completed her challenge--and to her satisfaction, apparently. At least one of them is enjoying this.

And Ratatoskr... Well...

Ratatoskr understands relative sizes, at least. That will be useful.

But things quickly go sideways--or frontways or backways or however they might be. Hannah slips the thing she had touched into her satchel and looks to the distant light. She and Zephyr both close their eyes, and seem to take a moment of meditation. "Ready?"

Zephyr ansers with a chirp.

In unison they open their eyes. Zephyr takes off flying as Hannah breaks into a run. They almost seem to work in tandem somehow, one shouting and the other chirping at each other as they figure out the strangely shifting dimensions of space and reality. Zephyr scouts ahead, but Hannah helps guide him, and together they both make their way towards that promise of escape.
</poem>

 DG: Hannah Curie has used her Tool Zephyr toward her party's challenge, Escaping Chaos. Rally! 

 <Pose Tracker> Holly has posed.
<poem>Holly won't talk about the fight with herself. It's not the first time she's had differences of opinion with herself and it's probably healthiest to avoid bringing up some of those years back up. 
 
That said, she's covered in more ink than usual now. 
 
 Rata's response to her accusation is met with, "You didn't order food from yourself! You'd have eaten it already. You cheated!" then she sticks her tongue out and just.. you know. Floats up out of reach. Cheating fairy cheats! 
 
 That's when the world gets weirder. More weirder. "I'm.. fairly sure I didn't try to eat those mushrooms again. I learned my lesson last time a-" Nevermind. This is all weirdness, but she's experienced weirdness! Self-inflicted. Sometimes from a failed drug test. She uh, kind of drifts along. Just accepting it as she heads towards that light at the end. 
 
 "That's bad" she says to no one in particular. Pausing. "The light at the end. This one's not bad, but it could be." 
 
 Belatedly, she looks to Hannah, "I'll explain later." Dismissing it. She knows they could be dangerous. She even had ideas on trying to do similar strangeness, but it wasn't quite her forte earlier! 
 
 She does keep a cautious eye on Amaterasu for now too. She seems distracted. Even moreso than she herself is. Totally won't accidentally drift into weirdness
</poem>

 DG: Holly has used her Tool Strange Wind toward her party's challenge, Escaping Chaos. Cleanse! All negative effects
 will be cleared at the end of the round!

 <Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
<poem>
    Everything goes amiss in the moments after their doubles (and then some) are felled; Amaterasu has but that fleeting instant to consider her victory of herselves.

    After that, everything starts to twist and expand and go in on itself, ''all at once''.

    "Hm," remarks the consummate soldier. "This may be trouble. I do not think this place shall hold." Her prize still in hand -- whatever it is -- she takes off running over a crystal that is soon no longer a crystal, rebounding off of a cloud and racing across the underside of a stream. This is a place where physics no longer obeys any single rule, where sense cannot exist. This is a place they must escape, even so, for without sense or rules, life cannot exist--

    This, at least, is Amaterasu's view of the predicament they now face, a threat she applies all of her hard-headed determination against. If the Nightmare seeks to swallow her, then she will run and jump and climb to its very limits.

    Until she again should see the light of day.
</poem>

 DG: Amaterasu has used her Tool All-Surface Boots toward her party's challenge, Escaping Chaos. Quicken! Party Agility
 boosted!

 ========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
 ========================<* CHALLENGE - Escaping Chaos *>========================
 | Type: Final        | Dungeon Ability: Agility         | Challenge Rating: 3  |
 ---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
   However you deal with your strange doubled (tripled, quadrupled) selves may   
   be the easy part in the end.                                                  
                                                                                 
   Now you are faced with the full brunt of the Nightmare as it seems to come    
   fully unwound. Perhaps what you claimed in its heart agitated it. Regardless  
   -- if it had seemed near dreamlike in its presentation before, it doubles     
   down on it now.                                                               
                                                                                 
   Walls rotate into floors. Moving in one direction takes you in a completely   
   separate one. You walk on water, you walk on clouds, you fly, you fall, you   
   step into a soupy mass.                                                       
                                                                                 
   You can see the light of the outside world ahead, not far now. But can you    
   negotiate the obstacles that the changing form of the Nightmare presents to   
   you now?                                                                      
 ============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
 |  Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, |
 |      Maim:_Combat_Down!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, and      |
 |                             Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!                             |
 = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================

 ===================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare - Round 6 *>====================
 ==========================< Results - Escaping Chaos >==========================
 Player                               Exhaustion                      Pass/Fail
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Amaterasu                           43 --(0)--> 43                 Pass
 All-Surface Boots                   2   Agility Effects: Quicken              
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Ratatoskr                           15 --(0)--> 15                 Pass
 Teleporter Fragment                 3   Agility Effects: Stalwart and Risky   
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Hannah Curie                        35 --(0)--> 35                 Pass
 Zephyr                              2   Agility Effects: Efficient and Rally  
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Holly                               47 --(0)--> 47                 Pass
 Strange Wind                        2   Agility Effects: Cleanse and Inefficie
 -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------
 Leader: Amaterasu                   75 --(35)--> 110               Pass
 Conditions: Cripple|Madness|Maim|Slow(2)|Tire(2)
 Effects: Cleanse|Quicken(1)
 ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================

 DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success!
 DG: The party led by Amaterasu has successfully explored The Spitsbergen Nightmare!

 ========================<* The Spitsbergen Nightmare *>=========================
 ===================<* CHALLENGE - The Very Best Discovery *>====================
 | Type: Discovery    | Dungeon Ability: Conclusion      | Challenge Rating: 1  |
 ---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
   You emerge, at last, into daylight: you have escaped the Spitsbergen          
   Nightmare whole and with your prize in hand. That was... almost certainly a   
   very strange experience for you.                                              
                                                                                 
   Now safe, you take a look at what you have prised from the depths of that     
   place, and find that you have retrieved a... door?                            
                                                                                 
   To be fair, it's a door that seems to be made out of crystal, but it's still  
   definitely a door. Perhaps you could use it as a shield or even a battering   
   ram: it seems to be extremely durable while remaining lightweight.            
                                                                                 
   Still, what was a door doing in there?                                        
                                                                                 
   (OOC: This would make a good (yes really) Combat or Brute tool, referencing   
   its use as a superb shield or large blunt object.)                            
 ============================= Dungeon Conditions:  =============================
 |  Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Cripple:_Agility_Down!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, |
 |        Maim:_Combat_Down!, Quicken:_Agility_Up!, Slow:_Agility_Down!,        |
 |             Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!, and Treasure:_Exploration_Up!              |
 = Digger 2.0 ===================================================================

 <Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.
<poem>    In a place where space, color, and heading are all malleable and merely suggestions, recounting individual performances seems to be something of a futile effort - but there is movement. There has to be.
 
     There was! Chronology is not something that place seems to have sway over, for it is now firmly past tense as the quintet barge right on back out into mundane space beyond the bizarre gasses. (Somehow there's a rock where they just escaped, again. Pay it no mind. The animation error cannot hurt you as long as the internet does not point it out to you at the same time it happens.)
 
     All that's left is bleeding out the remainder of their frenzied momentum across the sand and soft earth, which at best serves to scatter them apart just a short ways beyond polite conversational distance. Some of them - maybe all of them - will find a free hand attached to something like their hand decided they had to hold onto it as they left, and with it...
 
     A door.
 
     "A door? A door!" Ratatoskr stands up, incredulous, shaking his hand out. He still can't feel it. "A door!" Ratatoskr says. "A... door."
 
     A door. It seems to be made out of crystal, so it may in fact be the second-best door in all of the worlds of Filgaia, Lunar, and beyond.
 
     Ratatoskr knocks on it politely. It doesn't open. It can't, it's not attached to anything that could be 'inside.'
 
     He tries to grab the doorknob to pry it open, only to find he cannot, and that now he's wildly swinging it everywhere - despite its near-indestructible durability, it's lightweight and easy to hold! Even Holly might be able to!
 
     ...
 
     The situation will not find any greater clarity in its impeding future.
</poem>

[[Category:Logs]]
[[Category:Chapter 2]]
[[Category:Chapter 2, Epilogue]]